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Handley Page Victor

The Handley Page Victor is a British jet-powered strategic bomber developed and produced by Handley Page during the Cold War. It was the third and final V bomber to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), the other two being the Vickers Valiant and the Avro Vulcan. Entering service in 1958, the Victor was initially developed as part of the United Kingdom's airborne nuclear deterrent, but it was retired from the nuclear mission in 1968, following the discovery of fatigue cracks which had been exacerbated by the RAF's adoption of a low-altitude flight profile to avoid interception, and due to the pending introduction of the Royal Navy's submarine-launched Polaris missiles in 1969.

With the nuclear deterrent mission relinquished to the Royal Navy a large V-bomber fleet could not be justified. A number of Victors were modified for strategic reconnaissance, using a combination of radar, cameras, and other sensors. Prior to the introduction of Polaris, some had already been converted into tankers to replace Valiants; further conversions to tankers followed and some of these re-purposed Victors refuelled Vulcan bombers during the Black Buck raids of the Falklands War.

Remaining in the air refueling role, the Victor was the last of the V-bombers to be retired from service on 15 October 1993. In its refueling role the Victor was replaced by the Vickers VC10 and the Lockheed Tristar.

Origins
The origin of the Victor and the other V bombers is heavily linked with the early British atomic weapons programme and nuclear deterrent policies that were developed in the aftermath of the Second World War. The atom bomb programme formally began with Air Staff Operational Requirement OR.1001 issued in August 1946, which anticipated a government decision in January 1947 to authorise research and development work on atomic weapons; the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) prohibited exporting atomic knowledge, even to countries that had collaborated on the Manhattan Project. OR.1001 envisaged a weapon not to exceed 24 ft in length, 5 ft in diameter, 10000 lb in weight, and suitable for release from 20000 ft to 50000 ft.

At the same time, the Air Ministry drew up requirements for bombers to replace the existing piston-engined heavy bombers such as the Avro Lancaster and the new Avro Lincoln which equipped RAF Bomber Command. In January 1947, the Ministry of Supply distributed Specification B.35/46 to aviation companies to satisfy Air Staff Operational Requirement OR.229 for "a medium range bomber landplane capable of carrying one 10000 lb bomb to a target 1500 nmi from a base which may be anywhere in the world." A cruising speed of 500 kn at heights between 35000 ft and 50000 ft was specified. The maximum weight when fully loaded ought not to exceed 100000 lb. The weapons load was to include a 10000 lb "Special gravity bomb" (i.e. a free-fall nuclear weapon), or over shorter ranges 20000 lb of conventional bombs. No defensive weapons were to be carried, the aircraft relying on its speed and altitude to avoid opposing fighters.

The similar OR.230 required a "long range bomber" with a 2000 nmi radius of action at a height of 50000 ft, a cruise speed of 575 mph, and a maximum weight of 200000 lb when fully loaded. Responses to OR.230 were received from Short Brothers, Bristol, and Handley Page; however, the Air Ministry recognised that developing an aircraft to meet these stringent requirements would have been technically demanding and so expensive that the resulting bomber could be purchased only in small numbers. As a result, realising that the majority of likely targets would not require such a long range, a less demanding specification for a medium-range bomber, Air Ministry Specification B.35/46 was issued. This demanded the ability to carry the same 10,000 lb bomb-load to a target 1500 nmi away at a height of 45000–50000 ft at a speed of 575 mph.

HP.80
The design proposed by Handley Page in response to B.35/46 was given the internal designation of HP.80. To achieve the required performance, Handley Page's aerodynamicist Dr. Gustav Lachmann and his deputy, Godfrey Lee developed a crescent-shaped swept wing for the HP.80. Aviation author Bill Gunston described the Victor's compound-sweep crescent wing as having been "undoubtedly the most efficient high-subsonic wing on any drawing board in 1947". The sweep and chord of the wing decreased in three distinct steps from the root to the tip, to ensure a constant critical Mach number across the entire wing and consequently a high cruise speed. The other parts of the aircraft which accelerate the flow, the nose and tail, were also designed for the same critical mach number so the shape of the HP.80 had a constant critical mach number all over. Early work on the project included tailless aircraft designs, which would have used wing-tip vertical surfaces instead; however as the proposal matured, a high-mounted, full tailplane was adopted instead. The profile and shaping of the crescent wing was subject to considerable fine-tuning and alterations throughout the early development stages, particularly to counter unfavourable pitching behaviour in flight.

The HP.80 and Avro's Type 698 were chosen as the best two of the proposed designs to B.35/46, and orders for two prototypes of each were placed. It was recognised, however, that there were many unknowns associated with both designs, and an order was also placed for Vickers' design, which became the Valiant. Although not fully meeting the requirements of the specification, the Valiant design posed little risk of failure and could therefore reach service earlier. The HP.80's crescent wing was tested on a ⅓-scale glider, the HP.87, and a heavily modified Supermarine Attacker, which was given the Handley Page HP.88 designation. The HP.88 crashed on 26 August 1951 after completing only about thirty flights and little useful data was gained during its brief two months of existence. By the time the HP.88 was ready, the HP.80 wing had changed such that the former was no longer representative. The design of the HP.80 had sufficiently advanced that the loss of the HP.88 had little effect on the programme.

Two HP.80 prototypes, WB771 and WB775, were built. WB771 had been partially assembled at the Handley Page factory at Radlett airfield when the Ministry of Supply decided the runway was too short for the first flight. The aircraft parts were transported by road to RAF Boscombe Down where they were assembled for the first flight; bulldozers were used to clear the route and create paths around obstacles. Sections of the aircraft were hidden under wooden framing and tarpaulins printed with "GELEYPANDHY / SOUTHAMPTON" to make it appear as a boat hull in transit. GELEYPANDHY was an anagram of "Handley Pyge", marred by a signwriter's error. On 24 December 1952, piloted by Handley Page's chief test pilot Hedley Hazelden, WB771 made its maiden flight, which lasted for a total of 17 minutes. Ten days later, the Air Ministry announced the aircraft's official name to be Victor.

The prototypes performed well; however, design failings led to the loss of WB771 on 14 July 1954, when the tailplane detached whilst making a low-level pass over the runway at Cranfield, causing the aircraft to crash with the loss of the crew. Attached to the fin using three bolts, the tailplane was subjected to considerably more load than had been anticipated, causing fatigue cracking around the bolt holes. This led to the bolts loosening and failing in shear. Stress concentrations around the holes were reduced by adding a fourth bolt. The potential for flutter due to shortcomings in the design of the fin/tailplane joint was also reduced by shortening the fin. Additionally, the prototypes were tail heavy due to the lack of equipment in the nose; this was remedied by adding large ballast weights to the prototypes. Production Victors had a lengthened nose to move the crew escape door further from the engine intakes as the original position was considered too dangerous as an emergency exit in flight. The lengthened nose also improved the center of gravity range.

Victor B.1
Production B.1 Victors were powered by the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire ASSa.7 turbojets rated at 11000 lbf, and were initially armed with the Blue Danube nuclear weapon and later with the more powerful Yellow Sun weapon when it became available. Victors also carried U.S.-owned Mark 5 nuclear bombs (made available under the Project E programme) and the British Red Beard tactical nuclear weapon. A total of 24 were upgraded to B.1A standard by the addition of Red Steer tail warning radar in an enlarged tail-cone and a suite of radar warning receivers and electronic countermeasures (ECM) from 1958 to 1960.

On 1 June 1956, a production Victor XA917 flown by test pilot Johnny Allam inadvertently exceeded the speed of sound after Allam let the nose drop slightly at a high power setting. Allam noticed a cockpit indication of Mach 1.1 and ground observers from Watford to Banbury reported hearing a sonic boom. The Victor maintained stability throughout the event. Aviation author Andrew Brookes has claimed that Allam broke the sound barrier knowingly to demonstrate the Victor's higher speed capability compared to the earlier V-bombers. The Victor was the largest aircraft to have broken the sound barrier at that time.

Victor B.2
The RAF required its bombers to be capable of higher operational ceilings, and numerous proposals were considered for improved Victors. Initially, Handley Page proposed using 14000 lbf Sapphire 9 engines to produce a "Phase 2" bomber, to be followed by "Phase 3" Victors with the wingspan increased to 137 ft and powered by Bristol Siddeley Olympus turbojets or Rolls-Royce Conway turbofans. The Sapphire 9 was cancelled and the heavily modified Phase 3 aircraft would have delayed introduction, so an interim "Phase 2A" Victor was proposed and accepted, to be powered by the Conway but with minimal modifications.

The "Phase 2A" proposal became the  Victor B.2, with Conway RCo.11 engines providing 17250 lbf, which required enlarged intakes to increase the airflow to the engines, and the wingspan was increased to 120 ft. The B.2 also added a pair of retractable "elephant ear" intakes on the upper rear fuselage forward of the fin, to feed air to Ram Air Turbines (RAT) to provide electricity should an in-flight engine failure occur.

The first flight of the Victor B.2 prototype, serial number XH668 was made on 20 February 1959, and it had flown 100 hours by 20 August 1959, when it disappeared from radar, crashing into the sea off the Pembrokeshire coast during high-altitude engine tests carried out by the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE). Most of the wreckage had been recovered by November 1960, following an extensive search and recovery operation. The accident investigation concluded that the starboard pitot head had failed, causing the flight control system to force the aircraft into an unrecoverable dive. Minor changes resolved the problem, allowing the B.2 to enter service in February 1962.

Further development
A total of 21 B.2 aircraft were upgraded to the B.2R standard with Conway RCo.17 engines (20600 lbf thrust) and facilities to carry a Blue Steel stand-off nuclear missile. Anti-radar chaff storage had to be relocated from under the nose as a result of the Blue Steel installation. Coincidentally, Peter White, a senior aerodynamicist attended a symposium in Brussels and learned of Whitcomb's conical bodies set on the top of a wing which would add volume while reducing wave drag. However, the added skin friction drag meant an overall slight drag increase. So large streamlined fairings were added to the top of the each wing to hold the chaff. The fairings behaved like "Küchemann carrots". These were anti-shock bodies which reduced wave drag at transonic speeds (see area rule). Handley Page proposed to build a further refined "Phase 6" Victor, with more fuel and capable of carrying up to four Skybolt (AGM-48) ballistic missiles on standing airborne patrols, but this proposal was rejected although it was agreed that some of the Victor B.2s on order would be fitted to carry two Skybolts. This plan was abandoned when the U.S. cancelled the Skybolt programme in 1963. With the move to low-level penetration missions, the Victors were fitted with air-to-air refuelling probes above the cockpit and received large underwing fuel tanks.

Nine B.2 aircraft were converted for strategic reconnaissance purposes to replace Valiants which had been withdrawn due to wing fatigue, with delivery beginning in July 1965. These aircraft received a variety of cameras, a bomb bay-mounted radar mapping system and air sampling equipment to detect particles released from nuclear testing. Designated Victor SR.2, a single aircraft could photograph the whole of the United Kingdom in a single two-hour sortie. Different camera configurations could be installed in the bomb bay, including up to four F49 survey cameras and up to eight F96 cameras could be fitted to take vertical or oblique daylight photography; nighttime photography required the fitting of F89 cameras.

Aerial refuelling conversion
Prior to the demise of the Valiant as a tanker, a trial installation of refuelling equipment was carried out using the Victor, including: overload bomb-bay tanks, underwing tanks, refuelling probe and jettisonable de Havilland Spectre Assisted Take-Off units. The aircraft involved in the trials, B.1 "XA930", carried out successful trials at Boscombe Down at very high all-up weights with relatively short field length take-offs.

With the withdrawal of the Valiant because of metal fatigue in December 1964 the RAF had no flight-refuelling capability, so the B.1/1A aircraft, by then surplus in the strategic bomber role, were refitted for this duty. To get some tankers into service as quickly as possible, six B.1A aircraft were converted to B(K).1A standard (later redesignated B.1A (K2P) ), receiving a two-point system with a hose and drogue carried under each wing, while the bomb bay remained available for weapons. Handley Page worked day and night to convert these six aircraft, with the first being delivered on 28 April 1965, and 55 Squadron becoming operational in the tanker role in August 1965.

While these six aircraft provided a limited tanker capability suitable for refuelling fighters, the Mk 20A wing hosereels delivered fuel at too low a rate to be suitable for refuelling bombers. Work therefore continued to produce a definitive three-point tanker conversion of the Victor Mk.1. Fourteen further B.1A and 11 B.1 were fitted with two permanently fitted fuel tanks in the bomb bay, and a high-capacity Mk 17 centreline hose dispenser unit with three times the fuel flow rate as the wing reels, and were designated K.1A and K.1 respectively.

The remaining B.2 aircraft were not as suited to the low-level mission profile that the RAF had adopted for carrying out strategic bombing missions as the Vulcan with its stronger delta wing. This, combined with the switch of the nuclear deterrent from the RAF to the Royal Navy (with the Polaris missile) meant that the Victors were declared surplus to requirements. Hence, 24 B.2 were modified to K.2 standard. Similar to the K.1/1A conversions, the wing, which was to have been fitted with tip fuel tanks to reduce wing fatigue, had 18 inches removed from each tip instead and the bomb aimer's nose glazing was replaced with metal. During 1982, the glazing was reintroduced on some aircraft, the former nose bomb aimer's position having been used to mount F95 cameras in order to perform reconnaissance missions during the Falklands War. The K.2 could carry 91000 lb of fuel. It served in the tanker role until withdrawn in October 1993.

Overview
The Victor was a futuristic-looking, streamlined aircraft, with four turbojet (later turbofan) engines buried in the thick wing roots. Distinguishing features of the Victor were its highly swept T-tail with considerable dihedral on the tail planes, and a prominent chin bulge that contained the targeting radar, nose landing gear unit and an auxiliary bomb aimer's position. It was originally required by the specification that the whole nose section could be detached at high altitudes to act as an escape pod, but the Air Ministry abandoned this requirement in 1950.

The Victor had a five-man crew, comprising the two pilots seated side by side and three rearward-facing crew, these being the navigator/plotter, the navigator/radar operator, and the air electronics officer (AEO). The Victor's pilots sat at the same level as the rest of the crew, due to a large pressurised compartment that extended all the way to the nose. As with the other V-bombers, only the pilots were provided with ejection seats; the three systems operators relying on "explosive cushions" inflated by a CO2 bottle that would help them from their seats, but despite this, escape for them would have still been very unlikely in most emergency situations.

While assigned to the nuclear delivery role, the Victor was finished in an all-over anti-flash white colour scheme, designed to protect the aircraft against the damaging effects of a nuclear detonation. The white colour scheme was intended to reflect heat away from the aircraft; paler variations of RAF's roundels were also applied for this same reason. When the V-bombers were assigned to the low-level approach profile in the 1960s, the Victors were soon repainted in green/grey tactical camouflage to reduce visibility to ground observation; the same scheme was applied to subsequently converted tanker aircraft.

Armaments and equipment
The Victor's bomb bay was much larger than that of the Valiant and Vulcan, which allowed heavier weapon loads to be carried at the cost of range. As an alternative to the single "10,000 lb" nuclear bomb as required by the specification, the bomb bay was designed to carry several conventional armaments, including a single 22000 lb Grand Slam or two 12000 lb Tallboy earthquake bombs, up to forty-eight 1000 lb bombs or thirty-nine 2000 lb sea mines. One proposed addition to the Victor were underwing panniers capable of carrying a further 28 1,000 lb bombs to supplement the main bomb bay, but this option was not pursued.

In addition to a range of free-fall nuclear bombs, later Victor B.2s operated as missile carriers for standoff nuclear missiles such as Blue Steel. Target information for Blue Steel could be input during flight, as well in advance of the mission. It was reported that, with intensive work, a B.2 missile carrier could revert to carrying free-fall nuclear weapons or conventional munitions within 30 hours.

Like the other two V-Bombers, the Victor made use of the Navigational and Bombing System (NBS); a little-used optical sight had also been installed upon early aircraft. For navigation and bomb-aiming purposes, the Victor employed several radar systems. These included the H2S radar, developed from the first airborne ground-scanning radar, and the Green Satin radar. Radar information was inputted into the onboard electromechanical analogue bomb-aiming apparatus. Some of the navigation and targeting equipment was either directly descended from, or shared concepts with, those used on Handley Page's preceding Halifax bomber. Operationally, the accuracy of the bomb-aiming system proved to be limited to roughly 400 yards, which was deemed sufficient for high-level nuclear strike operations.

Avionics and systems
The Victor had fully powered flying controls for the ailerons, elevators and rudder, with no manual reversion which required duplication as back-up. Since the control surfaces were fully powered an artificial feel unit was provided, fed by ram air from the pitot in the nose. Pilot control movements were transmitted via a low-friction mechanical system to the flying control units. Duplication was provided on the premise that the single pilot's input would remain functional and that neither hydraulic motors nor screwjack on a unit would jam. A separate hydraulic circuit was used for each of the following: landing gear, flaps, nose flaps, air brakes, bomb doors, wheel brakes, nose-wheel steering, ram-air-turbine air scoops. An AC electrical system and auxiliary power unit were significant additions to the later Victor B.2, electrical reliability being noticeably improved.

To evade enemy detection and interception efforts, the Victor was outfitted with an extensive ECM suite which were operated by the air electronics officer (AEO), who had primary responsibility for the aircraft's electronics and communication systems. The ECM equipment could be employed to disrupt effective use of both active and passive radar in the vicinity of the aircraft, and to provide situational awareness for the crew. Enemy communications could also be jammed, and radar guided missiles of the era were also reportedly rendered ineffective. The Victor B.2 featured an extended area located around the base of the tail fin which contained cooling systems and some of the ECM equipment.

Some of the ECM equipment which initially saw use on the Victor, such as the original chaff dispenser and Orange Putter tail warning radar, had been developed for the earlier English Electric Canberra bomber and was already considered to be nearly obsolete by the time the Victor entered service. Significant improvements and alterations were made to the avionics and ECM suites, as effective ECMs had been deemed critical to the Victor's role;. For example, the introduction of the more capable Red Steer tail warning radar. The introduction of the Victor B.2 was accompanied by several new ECM systems, including a passive radar warning receiver, a metric radar jammer and communications jamming equipment. Streamlined fairings on the trailing edges of the wings that could house large quantities of defensive chaff/flares were also new additions. While trials were conducted with terrain-following radar and a side scan mode for the bombing and navigation radar, neither of these functions were integrated into the operational fleet.

Engines
The Victor B.1 was powered by four Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet engines. The engines were embedded in pairs in the wing roots. Because of the mid wing position, the tail was mounted at the tip of the fin to keep clear of the jet efflux. Sapphire engines installed in the Victor suffered 'centre-line closure' failures flying in dense cloud or heavy rain flying in the tropics. The Victor B.2 was powered by the newer Rolls-Royce Conway turbofan which at one point was the most powerful non-afterburning engine outside the Soviet Union. The Conway had significantly higher thrust than the Sapphire engine in the B.1.

The Victor B.2 had a Blackburn Artouste auxiliary power unit (AAPU) installed in the starboard wing root. It provided high-pressure air for starting the engines, and also provided electrical power on the ground or in the air as an emergency power supply if the engine-driven generators failed. It also reduced the need for some ground support equipment. Two turbine-driven alternators, otherwise known as ram air turbines (RATs), had been introduced on the B.2 to provide emergency power in the event of electrical power being lost. Retractable scoops in the rear fuselage would open to feed ram air to them enabling them to generate sufficient electrical power to operate the flight controls. In the event of engine flameout RATs would enable the crew to keep control of the aircraft until the engines could be relit.

Flight profile
The Victor was commonly described as having good handling and excellent performance, along with favourable low speed flight characteristics. During the flight tests of the first prototype, the Victor proved its aerodynamic performance, flying up to Mach 0.98 without handling or buffeting problems; there were next to no aerodynamic changes between prototype and production aircraft. Production aircraft featured an automated nose-flap operation to counteract a tendency for the aircraft to pitch upwards during low-to-moderate Mach numbers. At low altitude, the Victor typically flew in a smooth and comfortable manner, in part due to its narrowness and flexibility of the crescent wing. One unusual flight characteristic of the early Victor was its self-landing capability; once lined up with the runway, the aircraft would naturally flare as the wing entered into ground effect while the tail continued to sink, giving a cushioned landing without any command or intervention by the pilot. However, this characteristic was considered to be of no special advantage according to an assessment of the second prototype by the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment.

The Victor has been described as an agile aircraft, atypical for a large bomber aircraft; in 1958, a Victor had performed several loops and a barrel roll during practices for a display flight at Farnborough Airshow. Manoeuvrability was greatly enabled by the light controls, quick response of the aircraft, and the design of certain flight surfaces such as the infinitely-variable tail-mounted airbrake. The Victor was designed for flight at high subsonic speeds, although multiple instances have occurred in which the sound barrier was broken. During development of the Victor B.2, the RAF had stressed the concept of tactical manoeuvrability, which led to much effort in development being given to increasing the aircraft's height and range performance.

Operational history

The Victor was the last of the V bombers to enter service, with deliveries of B.1s to No. 232 Operational Conversion Unit RAF based at RAF Gaydon, Warwickshire taking place in late 1957. The first operational bomber squadron, 10 Squadron, formed at RAF Cottesmore in April 1958, with a second squadron, 15 Squadron, forming before the end of the year. Four Victors, fitted with Yellow Astor reconnaissance radar, together with passive sensors, were used to equip a secretive unit, the Radar Reconnaissance Flight at RAF Wyton. The Victor bomber force continued to build up, with 57 Squadron forming in March 1959 and 55 Squadron in October 1960. At its height, the Victor was simultaneously operating with six squadrons of RAF Bomber Command.

According to the operational doctrine developed by the RAF, in the circumstance of deploying a large-scale nuclear strike, each Victor would have operated entirely independently; the crews would conduct their mission without external guidance and be reliant upon the effectiveness of their individual tactics to reach and successfully attack their assigned target; thus great emphasis was placed on continuous crew training during peacetime. Developing a sense of a crew unity was considered highly important; Victor crews would typically serve together for at least five years, and a similar approach was adopted with ground personnel. In order to maximise the operational lifespan of each aircraft, Victor crews typically flew a single five-hour training mission per week. Each crew member was required to qualify for servicing certificates to independently undertake inspection, refuelling and turnaround operations.

In times of high international tension, the V-bombers would have dispersed and been maintained at a high state of readiness; if the order was given to deploy a nuclear strike, Victors at high readiness would have been airborne in under four minutes. British intelligence had estimated that the Soviets' radar network was capable of detecting the Victor at up to 200 miles away, so to avoid interception, the Victor would follow carefully planned routes to exploit weaknesses in the Soviet detection network. This tactic was employed in conjunction with the Victor's extensive onboard ECM to increase the chances of evasion. Whilst originally the Victor would have maintained high-altitude flight throughout a nuclear strike mission, rapid advances of the Soviet anti-aircraft warfare capabilities (exemplified by the downing of a U-2 from 70,000 ft in 1960) led to this tactic being abandoned: a low-level high-speed approach supported by increasingly sophisticated ECMs was adopted in its place.

The improved Victor B.2 started to be delivered in 1961, with the first B.2 Squadron, 139 Squadron, forming in February 1962, and a second, 100 Squadron, in May 1962. These were the only two bomber squadrons to form on the B.2, as the last 28 Victors on order were cancelled. The prospect of Skybolt ballistic missiles, with which each V-bomber could strike at two separate targets, meant that fewer bombers would be needed. The government was also unhappy with Sir Frederick Handley Page's resistance to its pressure to merge his company with competitors. Following Skybolt's cancellation, Victor B.2s were retrofitted as carrier aircraft for the Blue Steel standoff nuclear missile. The introduction of standoff weapons and the switch to low-level flight in order to evade radar detection were said to be decisive factors in the successful penetration of enemy territory.

In 1964–1965, a series of detachments of Victor B.1As was deployed to RAF Tengah, Singapore as a deterrent against Indonesia during the Borneo conflict, the detachments fulfilling a strategic deterrent role as part of Far East Air Force, while also giving valuable training in low-level flight and visual bombing. In September 1964, with the confrontation with Indonesia reaching a peak, the detachment of four Victors was prepared for rapid dispersal, with two aircraft loaded with live conventional bombs and held on one-hour readiness, ready to fly operational sorties. However, they were never required to fly combat missions and the high readiness alert finished at the end of the month.

Following the discovery of fatigue cracks, developing due to their low-altitude usage, the B.2R strategic bombers were retired and placed in storage by the end of 1968. The RAF had experienced intense demand on its existing aerial refuelling tanker fleet, and its existing fleet of Victor B.1 tankers that had been converted earlier were due to be retired in the 1970s, so it was decided that the stored Victor B.2Rs would be converted to tankers also. Handley Page prepared a modification scheme that would see the Victors fitted with tip tanks, the structure modified to limit further fatigue cracking in the wings, and ejection seats provided for all six crewmembers. The Ministry of Defence delayed signing the order for conversion of the B2s until after Handley Page went into liquidation. The contract for conversion was instead awarded to Hawker Siddeley, who produced a much simpler conversion proposal, with the wingspan shortened to reduce wing bending stress and hence extend airframe life.

While the Victor was never permanently based with any units stationed overseas, temporary deployments were frequently conducted, often in a ceremonial capacity or to participate in training exercises and competitions. Victor squadrons were dispatched on several extended deployments to the Far East, and short term deployments to Canada were also conducted for training purposes. At one point during the early 1960s, South Africa showed considerable interest in the acquisition of several bomber-configured Victors.

Several of the Victor B.2s had been converted for Strategic Reconnaissance missions following the retirement of the Valiant in this capacity. In service, this type was primarily used in surveillance of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Seas, capable of surveying 400,000 square miles in an eight-hour mission; they were also used to sample the fallout from French nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific. Originally reconnaissance Victors were equipped for visual reconnaissance; it was found to be cheaper to assign Canberra light bombers to this duty and the cameras were removed in 1970. Subsequently, radar-based reconnaissance was emphasised in the type's role. The reconnaissance Victors remained in use until 1974 when they followed the standard bombers into the tanker conversion line; a handful of modified Avro Vulcans assumed the maritime radar reconnaissance role in their place.

Both the Victor and the Vulcan, played a high-profile role during the 1982 Falklands War. In order to cross the distance of the South Atlantic, a single Vulcan required refuelling several times from Victor tankers. A total of three bombing missions were flown against Argentine forces deployed to the Falklands, with approximately 1.1 million gal (5 million L) of fuel consumed in each mission. At the time, these missions held the record for the world's longest-distance bombing raids. The deployment of other assets to the theatre, such as the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod and Lockheed Hercules, required the support of the Victor tanker fleet, which had been temporarily relocated to RAF Ascension Island for the campaign. The Victor also undertook several reconnaissance missions over the South Atlantic. These missions provided valuable intelligence for the retaking of South Georgia by British forces.

Following the invasion of Kuwait by neighbouring Iraq in 1991, a total of eight Victor K.2s were deployed to Bahrain to provide in-flight refuelling support to RAF and other coalition aircraft during the subsequent 1991 Gulf War. RAF strike aircraft such as the Panavia Tornado would frequently make use of the tanker to refuel prior to launching cross-border strikes inside Iraq. The remaining Victor fleet was retired in 1993, at which point it had been the last of the three V-bombers in operational service.

Variants

 * HP.80
 * Prototype, two aircraft built.

 * Victor B.1
 * Strategic bomber aircraft, 50 built.

 * Victor B.1A
 * Strategic bomber aircraft, B.1 updated with Red Steer tail warning radar and ECM suite, 24 converted.

 * Victor B.1A (K.2P)
 * 2-point in-flight refuelling tanker retaining bomber capability, six converted.

 * Victor BK.1
 * 3-point in-flight refuelling tanker (renamed K.1 after bombing capability removed), 11 converted.

 * Victor BK.1A
 * 3-point in-flight refuelling tanker (renamed K.1A as for K.1), 14 converted.

 * Victor B.2
 * Strategic bomber aircraft, 34 built.

 * Victor B.2RS
 * Blue Steel-capable aircraft with RCo.17 Conway 201 engines, 21 converted.

 * Victor B(SR).2
 * Strategic reconnaissance aircraft, nine converted.

 * Victor K.2
 * In-flight refuelling tanker. 24 converted from B.2 and B(SR).2.

 * HP.96
 * Proposed military transport of 1950 with new fuselage carrying 85 troops. Unbuilt.

 * HP.97
 * 1950 civil airliner project. Not built.

 * HP.98
 * Proposed pathfinder version with remotely operated tail guns and powered by Conway engines. Rejected in favour of Valiant B.2.

 * HP.101
 * Proposed military transport version of HP.97. Not built.

 * HP.104
 * Proposed "Phase 3" bomber of 1955 powered by Bristol Olympus or Sapphire engines. Not built.

 * HP.111
 * 1958 project for military or civil transport, powered by four Conway engines. Capacity for 200 troops in military version or 145 passengers in airliner in a double-decker fuselage.

 * HP.114
 * Proposed "Phase 6" bomber designed for standing patrols carrying two or four GAM-87 Skybolt ballistic missiles.

 * HP.123
 * Proposed military tactical transport based on HP.111 and fitted with blown flaps. Rejected in favour of Armstrong Whitworth AW.681.

Operators

 * Royal Air Force
 * No. 10 Squadron RAF operated B.1 from April 1958 to March 1964 at RAF Cottesmore.
 * No. 15 Squadron RAF operated B.1 from September 1958 to October 1964 at RAF Cottesmore.
 * No. 55 Squadron RAF operated B.1 and B.1As from RAF Honington from October 1960, moving to RAF Marham and receiving B.1(K)A tankers in May 1965. These were replaced by K.2 in July 1975, with the squadron continuing to operate Victors in the tanker role until disbanding in October 1993.
 * No. 57 Squadron RAF operated B.1As from RAF Honington from March 1959, moving to RAF Marham in December 1965 for conversion to K.1 and later K.2 tankers until disbanding in June 1986.
 * No. 100 Squadron RAF operated B.2s at RAF Wittering from May 1962 to September 1968.
 * No. 139 (Jamaica) Squadron RAF operated B.2s from RAF Wittering from February 1962 to December 1968.
 * No. 214 Squadron RAF operated K.1 tankers from RAF Marham from July 1966 to January 1977.
 * No. 543 Squadron RAF operated B(SR).2s from RAF Wyton from December 1965 to May 1974.
 * No. 232 Operational Conversion Unit RAF.
 * Radar Reconnaissance Flight RAF Wyton.

Accidents and incidents

 * 14 July 1954: WB771 the prototype HP.80 crashed during a test flight at Cranfield, England. All four crewmen died. The tailplane detached from the top of the fin.
 * 16 April 1958: XA921 a B.1 undertaking Ministry of Supply trials experienced a collapse of the rear bomb bay bulkhead while cycling the bomb bay doors, damaging hydraulic and electrical systems; the aircraft successfully returned to base. Following the incident, in-service Victors had restrictions put in place on the opening of the bomb doors until Modification 943 was applied to all aircraft.
 * 20 August 1959: XH668 a B2 of the A&AEE lost a pitot head and dived into the sea off Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. More than 40 ships and 4,000 people were involved in the recovery of 600,000 pieces of the missing bomber, an exercise referred to as 'Operation Victor Search'.
 * 19 June 1960: XH617 a B1A of 57 Squadron caught fire in the air and was abandoned near Diss, Norfolk.
 * 23 March 1962: XL159 a B2 of the A&AEE stalled and dived into a house at Stubton, Lincolnshire.
 * 14 June 1962: XH613 a B1A of 15 Squadron lost power on all engines and was abandoned on approach to RAF Cottesmore.
 * 16 June 1962: XA929 a B1 of 10 Squadron overshot the runway and broke up at RAF Akrotiri following an aborted takeoff.
 * 2 October 1962: XA934 a B1 of 'A' Squadron, 232 OCU had an engine failure and deliberate shutdown of the adjacent engine on takeoff from RAF Gaydon. During the approach to land the other two engines flamed out. The aircraft crashed into a copse several miles from RAF Gaydon. Of the four crew on board only the co-pilot survived. The RAF accident record states the prime cause as mis-management of the fuel system and consequent fuel starvation of the two running engines.
 * 20 March 1963: XM714 a B2 of 100 Squadron stalled after takeoff from RAF Wittering.
 * 29 June 1966: XM716 a SR2 of 543 Squadron was giving a demonstration flight for the press and television at RAF Wyton. The aircraft had made one high-speed circuit and was flying low in a wide arc to return over the airfield when the starboard wing was seen to break away and both it and the rest of the aircraft burst into flames. All four crew were killed. The aircraft was the first SR2 to enter service with the squadron. The aircraft had exceeded its operational limitations causing overstressing.
 * 19 August 1968: Victor K1 XH646 of 214 Squadron collided in midair near Holt, Norfolk in bad weather with a 213 Squadron English Electric Canberra WT325; all four crew members of the Victor died, as did all three on board the Canberra.
 * 10 May 1973: XL230 a SR2 of 543 Squadron bounced during landing at RAF Wyton and exploded.
 * 24 March 1975: Victor K1A XH618 of 57 Squadron was involved in a midair collision with Blackburn Buccaneer XV156 during a simulated refuelling. The Buccaneer hit the Victor's tailplane causing the Victor to crash into the sea 95 mi (153 km) east of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, four crew killed.
 * 29 Sept 1976: XL513 a K2 of No 55 Squadron aborted take off and overshot the runway at RAF Marham after a bird strike. The crew escaped with no serious injuries. The aircraft caught fire and was damaged beyond repair.
 * 15 October 1982: XL232 a K2 of No 55 Squadron suffered an uncontained turbine failure early in the take off run. The aircraft was stopped and the crew evacuated the aircraft with no injuries.  Debris from the turbine penetrated a fuselage fuel tank, starting an uncontrolled fire, destroying the aircraft and damaging the runway at RAF Marham.
 * 19 June 1986: XL191 a K2 of 57 Squadron undershot approach at Hamilton, Ontario.
 * 29 February 1988: Landing accident at USAF Offutt AB-hydraulic failure resulted in the aircraft running off the runway. As recorded and illustrated in Flypast October 2008 p. 107, this resulted in ‘I Ran Offut’ artwork being applied to the crew door. Many of the USAF groundcrew at Offutt were Irish- American, so the tongue-in-cheek phrase is meant to be said in an Irish accent, ‘I ran off it’.
 * 3 May 2009: During a "fast taxi" run at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, XM715 (Teasin' Tina) made a brief unplanned flight, reaching a height of about 30 ft at maximum, then carrying out a safe landing before the aircraft could reach the runway threshold. The aircraft did not have a permit to fly; however, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) stated that they would not be conducting an investigation. Teasin' Tina became airborne after the plane's co-pilot had failed to reply to the command "throttles back"; the pilot then had to control the throttles himself, the confusion temporarily disrupting firm control of the aircraft.

Surviving aircraft
A total of four Victors have survived and are on display in the United Kingdom. None are flightworthy.
 * Victor B.1A XH648: a B.1A (K.2P) at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, Cambridgeshire. This is the sole B.1 to survive. This aircraft is on display following a five year restoration project, which was formally completed in September 2022.
 * Victor K.2 XH672: Maid Marian, at the Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford, Shropshire, in the National Cold War Exhibition.
 * Victor K.2 XL231: Lusty Lindy, at the Yorkshire Air Museum, York. The prototype for the B.2 to K.2 conversion.
 * Victor K.2 XM715: Teasin' Tina/Victor Meldrew, at the British Aviation Heritage Centre, Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire. XM715, during a fast taxi demonstration, inadvertently left the ground briefly at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome in 2009.

A fifth airframe, Victor K.2 XH673: A K.2 served as Gate guardian at RAF Marham when retired in 1993, but in early 2020 she was offered up for disposal, with the word being that she was in a structurally unsafe condition. In spite of preservation attempts as of December 2020 most of the airframe had been scrapped. In February 2021, the RAF released the time-lapse footage of this airframe being dismantled.

Notable appearances in media
A 1964 Gerhard Richter painting titled XL 513 depicts Victor K.2, which was lost in a 1976 accident at RAF Marham.

title: Handley Page Victor


text:
User talk:StR~enwiki

Hey there StR! Welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like this place and want to stay. If you need help on how to title new articles check out Naming conventions, and for help on formatting the pages visit the manual of style. If you need help look at Help and The FAQ, plus if you can't find your answer there, check The Village pump or The Reference Desk! Best wishes! Alexandros

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called StR. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name StR~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 03:09, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 19:11, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:StR~enwiki


text:
Lilith (computer)

The DISER Lilith is a custom built workstation computer based on the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 2901 bit slicing processor, created by a group led by Niklaus Wirth at ETH Zurich. The project began in 1977, and by 1984 several hundred workstations were in use. It has a high resolution full page portrait oriented cathode ray tube display, a mouse, a laser printer interface, and a computer networking interface. Its software is written fully in Modula-2 and includes a relational database program named Lidas.

The Lilith processor architecture is a stack machine. Citing from Sven Erik Knudsen's contribution to "The Art of Simplicity": "Lilith's clock speed was around 7 MHz and enabled Lilith to execute between 1 and 2 million instructions (called M-code) per second. (...) Initially, the main memory was planned to have 65,536 16-bit words memory, but soon after its first version, it was enlarged to twice that capacity. For regular Modula-2 programs however, only the initial 65,536 words were usable for storage of variables."

History
The development of Lilith was influenced by the Xerox Alto from the Xerox PARC (1973) where Niklaus Wirth spent a sabbatical from 1976 to 1977. Unable to bring back one of the Alto systems to Europe, Wirth decided to build a new system from scratch between 1978 and 1980, selling it under the company name DISER (Data Image Sound Processor and Emitter Receiver System). In 1985, he had a second sabbatical leave to PARC, which led to the design of the Oberon System. Ceres, the follow-up to Lilith, was released in 1987.

Operating system
The Lilith operating system (OS), named Medos-2, was developed at ETH Zurich, by Svend Erik Knudsen with advice from Wirth. It is a single user, object-oriented operating system built from modules of Modula-2.

Its design influenced design of the OS Excelsior, developed for the Soviet Kronos workstation (see below), by the Kronos Research Group (KRG).

Soviet variants
From 1986 into the early 1990s, Soviet Union technologists created and produced a line of printed circuit board systems, and workstations based on them, all named Kronos. The workstations were based on Lilith, and made in small numbers.

Mouse
The computer mouse of the Lilith was custom-designed, and later used with the Smaky computers. It then inspired the first mice produced by Logitech.

title: Lilith (computer)


text:
Bayside

Bayside may refer:

United States

 * Bayside, California
 * Bayside High School (disambiguation), several schools in the U.S. and Canada
 * Bayside Marketplace, Miami, Florida
 * Bayside Historic District, a sub-neighborhood of the Belle Meade neighborhood of Upper Eastside, Miami, Florida
 * Bayside (Jeanerette, Louisiana), listed on the NRHP in Louisiana
 * Bayside Historic District (Northport, Maine), listed on the NRHP in Maine
 * Bayside, Maine, a residential zone in Northport, Maine
 * Bayside, a neighborhood in Portland, Maine
 * Bayside, Queens, New York, a neighborhood in New York City
 * Bayside (LIRR station), rail station in Queens
 * Bayside, Texas
 * Bayside, Accomack County, Virginia
 * Bayside, Virginia Beach, Virginia
 * Bayside, Westmoreland County, Virginia
 * Bayside, Wisconsin

Canada

 * Bayside, New Brunswick
 * Bayside, Nova Scotia
 * Bayside, Ontario

Other places

 * Bayside Comprehensive School, Gibraltar
 * Bayside, Dublin, in Ireland
 * City of Bayside, in the Australian State of Victoria, in the suburbs of Melbourne
 * Bayside Council, a local government area in New South Wales, Australia

Other uses

 * Bayside (album), by Bayside
 * Bayside (band), an American punk rock band
 * Gav-Yam, also known as Bayside Land Corporation, and Israeli real estate company
 * A purported Marian Apparation debunked by the Roman Catholic church, first reported by Veronica Lueken
 * A fictional county in the movie The Legend of Billie Jean.

title: Bayside


text:
Talk:Handley Page

Untitled
For the record, extensive checking shows that both Sir Frederick and the aircraft company spell their names without hyphens. A few of the references that back this up:

 * http://www.handleypage.com/History_page.html
 * Royal Aeronautical Society
 * Britannica

DJ Clayworth 15:48, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive {newarchive} to http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/companypage.php?ID=15

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External links modified
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Suggested amendment for the "Products" section
There is an aircraft missing from this section. Called the "Hereford", it was a re-design of the Hampden. I think it differed from the Hampden by the engines fitted. It wasn't a success for some reason.

Taff Hewitt (talk) 11:22, 13 November 2020 (UTC)
 * The Hereford is already included in the products section.Nigel Ish (talk) 11:58, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

two aircraft types are called 'antiseptic'
no idea what an antiseptic aircraft is Thomas.Osman (talk) 21:23, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

 * I have no clue either. It was added by User:NiD.29, so hopefully he can explain it. BilCat (talk) 22:45, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
 * The Type D article mentions it as just a nickname given by the test pilot, no mention in the Type E article. MilborneOne (talk) 10:42, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
 * According to C H Barnes's Handley Page since 1907, both the Type D and Type E had the nickname "Yellow Peril" while the Type D was known as the "Antiseptic" - both of which appear to have been inspired by the yellow varnishing of the wings and tail.Nigel Ish (talk) 17:39, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Handley Page


text:
Saraca asoca

Saraca asoca, commonly known as the ashoka tree (lit. "sorrow-less"), is a plant belonging to the Detarioideae subfamily of the legume family. It is an important tree in the cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent and adjacent areas. It is sometimes incorrectly known as Saraca indica. The flower of ashoka tree is the state flower of Indian state of Odisha.

Description
The ashoka is a rain-forest tree. Its original distribution was in the central areas of the Deccan plateau, as well as the middle section of the Western Ghats in the western coastal zone of the Indian subcontinent.

The ashoka is prized for its beautiful foliage and fragrant flowers. It is a handsome, small, erect evergreen tree, with deep green leaves growing in dense clusters.

Its flowering season is around February to April. The ashoka flowers come in heavy, lush bunches. They are bright orange-yellow in color, turning red before wilting.

As a wild tree, the ashoka is a vulnerable species. It is becoming rarer in its natural habitat, but isolated wild ashoka trees are still to be found in the foothills of the central and eastern Himalayas, in scattered locations of the northern plains of India as well as on the west coast of the subcontinent near Mumbai.

There are a few varieties of the ashoka tree. One variety is larger and highly spreading. The columnar varieties are common in cultivation.

Mythology and tradition
The ashoka tree is considered sacred throughout the Indian subcontinent, especially in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. This tree has many folklorical, religious and literary associations in the region. Highly valued as well for its handsome appearance and the color and abundance of its flowers, the ashoka tree is often found in royal palace compounds and gardens as well as close to temples throughout India.

The ashoka tree is closely associated with the yakshi mythological beings. One of the recurring elements in Indian art, often found at gates of Buddhist and Hindu temples, is the sculpture of a yakshini with her foot on the trunk and her hands holding the branch of a flowering ashoka tree. As an artistic element, often the tree and the yakshi are subject to heavy stylization. Some authors hold that the young girl at the foot of this tree is based on an ancient tree deity related to fertility. Yakshis under the ashoka tree were also important in early Buddhist monuments as a decorative element and are found in many ancient Buddhist archaeological sites. With the passing of the centuries the yakshi under the ashoka tree became a standard decorative element of Hindu Indian sculpture and was integrated into Indian temple architecture as salabhanjika, because there is often a confusion between the ashoka tree and the sal tree (Shorea robusta) in the ancient literature of the Indian subcontinent.

In Hinduism the ashoka is considered a sacred tree. Not counting a multitude of local traditions connected to it, the ashoka tree is worshipped in Chaitra, a month of the Hindu calendar. It is also associated with Kamadeva, the Hindu god of love, who included an ashoka blossom among the five flowers in his quiver, where ashoka represent seductive hypnosis. Hence, the ashoka tree is often mentioned in classical Indian religious and amorous poetry, having at least sixteen different names in Sanskrit referring to the tree or its flowers.

In Mahākāvya, or Indian epic poetry, the ashoka tree is mentioned in the Ramayana in reference to the Ashoka Vatika (garden of ashoka trees) where Hanuman first meets Sita.

Other trees called 'ashoka tree'
A popular tree known as "false ashoka tree" or even as "ashoka tree", Polyalthia longifolia, is cultivated to resemble the growth pattern of erect pillar-like Mediterranean cypress trees. It is a popular park and garden plant, much used in landscaping on the Indian subcontinent, known also as Devadaar or Debdaru. This tree can easily be distinguished by its simple leaves and very different flowers. Ashoka flowers are red (initially orange in color) while P. longifolia flowers are apple green in color. Ashoka fruits look like broad beans containing multiple seeds while false ashoka fruits are small, spherical and contain only one seed. Ashoka trees are small in height, while false ashoka is taller.

title: Saraca asoca


text:
Jackson Heights

Jackson Heights may refer to:

Places

 * Canada
 * Jackson Heights, Edmonton, Alberta

 * United States
 * Jackson Heights, Tampa, Florida
 * Jackson Heights, Queens, New York
 * Jackson Heights, Jackson County, Ohio
 * Jackson Heights, Jefferson County, Ohio

Other uses

 * Jackson Heights (band)
 * Jackson Heights (TV series), a Pakistani drama serial

title: Jackson Heights


text: User talk:165.24.5.66

title: User talk:165.24.5.66


text:
Tornio

Tornio (Torneå; ; Tuárnus) is a city and municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of undefined km2, of which undefined km2 is water. The population density is undefined PD/km2, with a total population of 0.

Tornio is unilingually Finnish with a negligible number of native Swedish speakers, although this does not count vast numbers of bilinguals who speak Swedish as a second language, with an official target of universal working bilingualism for both border municipalities.

History
The delta of the Torne River has been inhabited since the end of the last ice age, and there are currently (1995) 16 settlement sites known in the area, similar to those found in Vuollerim (c. 6000–5000 BC). The Swedish part of the region is not far from the oldest permanent settlement site found in Scandinavia. A former hypothesis that this region was uninhabited and colonised from the Viking Age onward has now been abandoned.

Until the 19th century, inhabitants of the surrounding countryside spoke Finnish, and Kemi Sámi, a language of the Eastern Sami group, while those of the town were mainly Swedish-speaking.

The name 'Tornio' is an old Finnish word meaning "war spear": the city is named after the river. To Swedish it was borrowed as Torneå after Torne å, an alternative name of the river.

The town received its charter from the King Gustavus Adolphus on May 12, 1621, and was officially founded on the island of Suensaari. At that time, it was the northernmost city in the world. The charter was granted in recognition of Tornio being the hub of all trade in Lapland throughout the 16th century. It was the largest merchant town in the North at the time, and for some years ranked as the richest town in Sweden. Despite the lively trade with Lapland and overseas, the population of the town remained stable for hundreds of years at little over 500.

During the 18th century Tornio was visited by several expeditions from Central Europe which came to explore the Arctic. The most notable expedition (1736–1737) was led by a member of the Académie française, Pierre Louis Maupertuis, who came to take meridian arc measurements along the Meänmaa which would show that the globe is flattened towards the poles. The church spire at Tornio was one of the landmarks used by Maupertuis in his measurements. The church was constructed in 1686 by Matti Joosepinpoika Härmä.

The Lapland trade on which Tornio depended started to decline in the 18th century, and the harbour had to be moved downriver twice as a result of the rising of the land, which made the river too shallow for navigation. However, the greatest blow to the wealth of the town came in the last war between Sweden and Russia in 1808, which saw the Russians capture and annex Finland. The border was drawn through the deepest channel of the Muonio and Tornio rivers, splitting Lapland into two parts, with deleterious effects on trade. Tornio ended up on the Russian side of the border by special request of the Russian czar. The Swedes developed the village of Haaparanta (present day Haparanda) on their side of the border, to balance the loss of Tornio, and Tornio became unilingually Finnish.

During the Russian period, Tornio was a sleepy garrison town. Trade only livened up during the Åland War (part of the Crimean War) and the First World War, when Tornio became an important border crossing for goods and people. During the First World War, Tornio and Haparanda had the only rail link connecting the Russians to their Western allies. It was also through Tornio that Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from exile in Switzerland in March 1917.

After the independence of Finland in 1917 Tornio lost its garrison and experienced further decline, although its population increased steadily. The town played no role of importance in the Finnish Civil War, but was the scene of some fierce street fighting at the onset of the Lapland War between Finland and Nazi Germany. The rapid liberation of the town by Finnish forces may have saved it from being burned down like so many other towns in Lapland. As a result, the wooden church from 1686 can still be seen today.

After World War II, the town created new employment built on the success of the local Lapin Kulta brewery and the Outokumpu stainless steel mill. Tourism based on the border has also been a growing industry. The town is a centre of education for Western Lapland, with a vocational college and a university of applied sciences.

Tornio and Haparanda have a history as twin cities, and are currently set to merge under the names TornioHaparanda and HaparandaTornio. A new city centre is under construction on the international border and several municipal services are shared. The towns also share a common golf course, situated astride the border. The IKEA store in Haparanda has signposting in Finnish as well as in Swedish, and all prices are signposted in two currencies.

Sports
Tornion Palloveikot is a bandy club which plays in the Bandyliiga and has become Finnish bandy champion several times. They play their home matches in Haparanda, just on the other side of the Swedish border, which was the venue for games at the 2001 Bandy World Championship.

Tornion Pallo -47 is the main association football club in the city.

Teemu Tainio, a football player and manager, was born in Tornio.

Jesse Puljujärvi, an ice hockey player, lived his childhood in Tornio.

Ville Pokka, an ice hockey player, was born and raised in Tornio.

The Finland-Sweden border runs through the golf course at the west of the city.

Climate
Tornio has a subarctic climate (Dfc) that is slightly tempered in winter by its proximity to the sea, but retains warm continental summers that are quite short. The weatherbox below is from neighbouring city Haparanda and operated by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. Despite the fact that Tornio experiences polar day for 13 days between 15 and 27 June, it does not experience polar night.

Transport
A break of gauge occurs at Tornio between the Finnish and Swedish railway systems. A bogie exchange and variable gauge axle track gauge changing facility are provided. Tornio has a passenger service provided from Tornio-East station by Finnish Railways VR three days a week overnight.

Kemi-Tornio Airport is located in Kemi, about 18 km south-east from Tornio city centre.

The Port of Tornio is a cargo port adjacent to the Outokumpu steelworks.

Highway 29 (part of the European route E8) between Keminmaa and Tornio is the world's northernmost motorway. Tornio is also the northern terminus of European route E4.

Notable people

 * Aarne Heikinheimo, Jäger Major-General
 * , bandy player
 * , writer, art critic and painter
 * Heikki Hyvönen, bandy player
 * , gymnast and snooker player
 * , businessman
 * Henri Sillanpää, footballer
 * Ivar Lantto, schoolteacher, farmer and politician
 * , forester and long-term director of the Forestry Department in Lapland
 * Jesse Puljujärvi, ice hockey player
 * Joni Myllykoski, ice hockey player
 * Juho-Teppo Berg, footballer
 * , ice hockey league judge
 * Jussi Hakasalo, footballer
 * Jussi Kanervo, hurdler
 * , clergyman and writer
 * Kalle Palander, alpine skier
 * , writer
 * Leena Huhta, sprinter
 * Läjä Äijälä, musician, comics artist and poet
 * , journalist, writer and screenwriter
 * , Jäger lieutenant
 * Pasi Hiekkanen, football goalkeeper and bandy player
 * , architect
 * Saku Mäenalanen, ice hockey player
 * Sari Eero, athlete
 * , politician
 * Teemu Tainio, footballer
 * Tuuli Matinsalo, aerobics athlete
 * Ville Pokka, ice hockey player
 * , hairdresser
 * , musician
 * Ville Pörhölä, athlete, Olympic Winner
 * Miranda Vuolasranta, Finnish teacher
 * Miranda Vuolasranta, Finnish teacher

Twin towns – sister cities
Tornio is twinned with:
 * 🏴 Devizes, England, United Kingdom
 * 🇳🇴 Hammerfest, Norway
 * Ikast-Brande, Denmark
 * 🇷🇺 Kirovsk, Russia
 * 🇭🇺 Szekszárd, Hungary
 * 🇸🇪 Vetlanda, Sweden

title: Tornio


text:
Torneå

Torneå is the Swedish name of Tornio, a city in northern Finland.

 * Ylitornio (Övertorneå) - a municipality in Finland
 * Övertorneå - a municipality in Sweden, Matarenki in Finnish.

title: Torneå


text: User talk:81.130.103.64

title: User talk:81.130.103.64


text:
Flight review

A flight review is a study program and flight instructor examination of aviation piloting skills. Periodic flight reviews are a pilot licensing requirement mandated by the aviation authorities of many countries. These reviews take different forms in different countries.

Flight reviews in the United States
In the United States, flight reviews are required every two years, and thus were formerly called biennial flight reviews (BFRs).

For holders of pilot certificates issued by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a flight review is required of every active holder of a U.S. pilot certificate at least every two years. The flight review consists of at least 1 hour of ground instruction and 1 hour in-flight with a qualified flight instructor, although completion of any Phase of the FAA WINGS program also satisfies the requirement for a flight review.

Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) 61.56 specifies that the review must include:
 * 1) A review of the current general operating and flight rules of part 91 of the FAR; and
 * 2) A review of those maneuvers and procedures that, at the discretion of the person giving the review, are necessary for the pilot to demonstrate the safe exercise of the privileges of the pilot certificate.

Before being able to act as pilot in command (PIC) in the United States, a pilot must have completed a flight review within the previous 24 calendar months. The FAA and instructors are quick to point out that it is not a pass/fail or graded test. There are no pass or fail criteria, although the instructor giving it can decline to endorse the pilot's log book to certify that a flight review has been completed.

A flight test (administered by an FAA representative Designated Pilot Examiner) that leads to a new certificate or rating may be substituted for the flight review. A proficiency check conducted by a Certified Flight Instructor for an additional Sport Pilot privilege may also be substituted for a flight review.

Completion of a proficiency check administered by a check pilot (typically air carrier pilots) can also be used.

title: Flight review


text:
Talk:Essentialism

Biological essentialism
The paragraph here is grossly simplistic and in my view false. The medieval naturalists were not slavish followers of Aristotle - Frederick II in fact criticises Aristotle on natural history (which had only just been translated by Michael Scot), and none of the literature refers to the causal or generative essences of biological species at any time from the classical period until after Darwin. The myth appears to have arisen some time around the centenary of the Origin, in 1959, based on a passing comment in H. W. Joseph's Introduction to Logic in 1916.

There was, and still is, a taxonomic essentialism, in which the defining characters of a species or higher taxon are listed in describing it, but that is not the sort of essentialism attacked in the essentialism story. Types were always "more or less", and what was held to be essential to a species was the ability of the organisms to generate more like them. Morphology was only ever used for identification. I would go so far as to say that biological essentialism doesn't arise until, at the earliest, the 1890s, and probably, due to the ambiguity of the so-called essentialists' writings, not until the mid-1930s (Agnes Arber and H. R. Thompson). In short, it is based on a historical misreading.

Moreover, Aristotle was not a fixist. He accepted new species through hybridisation. Fixism arose in the mid-17th century with John Ray, and it was always based on pitey and doctrine rather than any philosophical foundation.

Later note:

I now think there never was any kind of constitutive essentialism in biology (it was always a matter of identification or diagnosis). I argue this in my book, coming out this year. Obviously as thi sis my own research I can't put it on this page, but when it is out, someone else might like to address it.

The book is Species: A history of the idea from University of California Press 2009. John Wilkins (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 01:25, 25 July 2009 (UTC).

The following sentence is an abomination, and almost impossible to make sense of:

"Mary P. Winsor, Ron Amundson and Staffan Müller-Wille have each argued that in fact the usual suspects (such as Linnaeus and the Ideal Morphologists) were very far from being essentialists, and it appears that the so-called "essentialism story" (or "myth") in biology is a result of conflating the views expressed by philosophers from Aristotle onwards through to John Stuart Mill and William Whewell in the immediately pre-Darwinian period, using biological examples, with the use of terms in biology like species."

Would someone who can make sense of it please edit it into 2 - 3 intelligible sentences. Thank youJustinleif (talk) 18:14, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

google scholar shows only 4 citations of [4] and I have found opposing data in As such, I intend to revise what is said in reference to taxonomy and essentialism. I provide citations not as a gauge of credibility but so that anyone who wishes may scroll through the articles citing the original, to see all the other articles expressing agreement with the original.
 * Non-essentialist methods in pre-Darwinian taxonomy from Springer with 149 citations,
 * Taxonomy: myths and misconceptions with 22 citations, whose author is from the International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University,
 * Aristotle's biology was not essentialist with 182 citations
 * Typology reconsidered: two doctrines on the history of evolutionary biology, 121 citations, Springer
 * Linnaeus’s biology was not essentialist, 73 citations, BioOne

I similarly intent to revise the section 'In biology': and thus downplay the prevalence of the idea "that before evolution was developed as a scientific theory, there existed an essentialist view of biology that posited all species to be unchanging throughout time."
 * Incorrect use of reference [25]
 * To remind about the existence of all the historic proponents of Pangenesis and Orthogenesis

I welcome anyone who denies what I intend to add is true to present credible refutation.Kuiet (talk) 04:54, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

Section "In Mathematics"
I'm puzzled by this section. As far as I'm aware, the term "essentialism" is not used in mathematics or in the philosophy of math -- at least there's no reference to it in the philosophy of mathematics article. There is only one reference in the section (to an article by Folland), and Folland doesn't use the word. Can anyone clarify whether or not this section really belongs? Thanks.--NightHeron (talk) 23:47, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

Absent any justification for keeping the section, I've removed it. The source does not say anything about essentialism in math or the philosophy of math, so this section doesn't belong, per WP:OR. NightHeron (talk) 01:15, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

Section "In Politics"
Once again a new section is being added without any reference that uses the term "essentialism". An editor might believe that it's reasonable to use the word in this connection, but wikipedia policies such as WP:OR and WP:VER clearly say that this is not an adequate basis for including the section. Otherwise we'd see new sections on "In Religion" (because an editor finds a quote saying "You can't say you're a Christian if you're in favor of..."), on "In Sports" (because an editor finds a quote saying "You can't say you're a Yankees fan if you're not excited about..."), on "In Scholarship" (because an editor finds a quote saying "You can't say you're a true scholar if you use the methodology of..."), and so on forever. That's why this section should be removed. Thanks. NightHeron (talk) 02:44, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

 * Originally called, In Politics, I renamed a new, potential section for this article Karl Popper, Historicism and Methodological Essentialism. It's in my Sandbox, and I'd hoped you might check it out, NightHeron. Worth adding? Speck22 (talk) 02:08, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

 * Your sandbox summary of Popper is interesting to read, but I have several concerns: (1) it might be "original research" on your part (see WP:OR), in the sense that you're interpreting as well as summarizing Popper; (2) it gives undue emphasis to a single philosopher whose views should not be privileged over the views of others (see WP:UNDUE); and (3) there must be many who strongly disagree with Popper (after all, blaming social scientists for totalitarianism is a bit extreme), so if you give Popper's views you should balance it with the views of those who disagree with him. NightHeron (talk) 03:41, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

 * Got it and thank you. As I have time, I'll do the following: To point 1, I'll find at least one secondary source to summarize/interpret. To point 2, I'll find valid criticism. To point 3, I disagree with Popper! I'm reading him so I can critique him. But if I can satisfy point 2, that should also satisfy point 3. If not, then I'll find a stronger criticism.

 * My goal was simply to establish that there is a genuine use of genuine essentialism in serious political theory. I think I'm pretty close there, but until I deal with your concerns, it's not up to snuff. Will let you know when I've got something worth your time. Thanks again! Speck22 (talk) 16:29, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

 * Sure, I'll be happy to give feedback. Just let me know when you're ready. NightHeron (talk) 17:03, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

Why I cut the hatnote on the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Just FYI I cut the hatnote on book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less because it's a redirect to the author page Greg_McKeown_(author). In this 2015 AfD it was decided that the book is not notable in and of itself:, and WP:HAT states that Linking to redirects is typically not preferred in hatnotes. If anyone disagrees with this edit, I'll be happy to discuss. Generalrelative (talk) 04:29, 24 December 2020 (UTC)

Racial essentialism
please explain your objection. There are hundreds of sources on racial essentialism – if you think the words can be nuanced differently, please fix it. But removing scholarly sources like that seems disruptive. Onceinawhile (talk) 22:49, 22 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Biological racial essentialism is only one form of racial essentialism. It is not the same thing as racial essentialism, which is what your edit said. Your sources [7] and [8] make this clear. For example, [7] says: "Whereas, endorsement of biological essentialism may have similarly negative implications for social justice policies across racial categories, we investigated the hypothesis that endorsement of cultural essentialism would have different implications across racial categories. In Studies 1a and 1b, we assessed the properties of a cultural essentialism measure we developed..." And [8] says: "Essentialist conceptions of race hold that the characteristics of physical appearance referred to by racial terms are indicative of more profound characteristics (whether positively or negatively construed) of personality, inclinations, `culture,' heritage, cognitive abilities, or `natural talents' that are taken to be shared by all members of a racially defined group." So essentialism is not simply the belief that races are biologically determined.
 * By analogy, you might want to read the first paragraph of the section on gender essentialism. There's no disputing that there's a biological basis for different genders and that the division of a population into men and women is not just a social construct. But gender essentialism claims much more than that, and gender essentialism is widely disputed by many feminists and women's studies scholars. NightHeron (talk) 00:07, 23 July 2023 (UTC)
 * All very good points. But you did not need to revert me to make those points. You could build the article too. I see from here you added some text to the article five years ago, and ever since then have been reverting and removing text. No additions in five years.
 * Having read the article in full I believe it needs some structural improvements – the flow does not work well. What do you think?
 * Onceinawhile (talk) 07:23, 23 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Okay, I should have just removed the first sentence rather than reverting the whole edit. I think that the second paragraph of your edit is a good addition, except that it belongs right before the section on gender essentialism. I think it needs a few copy-edits, such as replacing high-brow academic words like reify and reductive with more everyday words. I agree that there are style problems with the article. One thing that reduces readability is that sections with academic mumbo jumbo come before the better-written sections about forms of essentialism that impact everyday life. So I'd also suggest that, instead of moving racial essentialism to where gender essentialism is, you move the gender essentialism section to come right after where you put the racial essentialism section, so that both follow right after the lead. NightHeron (talk) 08:57, 23 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you, really appreciated. I agree with your suggestion. I have also been doing some more thinking about the structure: this Ngrams chart is quite interesting. It says the most commonly discussed examples are:
 * strategic essentialism
 * gender essentialism
 * biological essentialism
 * cultural essentialism
 * racial essentialism
 * ...so perhaps we put all five as examples in that order. It also shows that these terms mostly began to be used in this way from the 1980s onwards.
 * I will have a go now at the restructure. Please amend as you see fit.
 * Onceinawhile (talk) 10:04, 23 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I have just done this. In doing the restructure, it made me realize that "strategic essentialism" is just a subdivision of racial / cultural essentialism. Do you think we should combine those sections? Onceinawhile (talk) 10:26, 23 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I have merged them. Onceinawhile (talk) 10:44, 23 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Essentialism


text:
Glen Allen

Glen Allen, Glen Allan, or similar, may refer to:

Places

 * Glen Allyn, Queensland, Australia
 * Glen Allan, Ontario, Canada; see Conestogo Lake
 * Glen Allen, Alabama, U.S.
 * Glen Allan, Mississippi, U.S.
 * Glen Allen, Missouri, U.S.
 * Glen Allen, Virginia, U.S.
 * Glen Allen High School
 * Glennallen, Alaska, U.S.

People

 * Glenn Allen Jr. (born 1970), U.S. autoracer
 * Glenn Seven Allen, American actor and operatic tenor
 * Glen Alyn (1913–1984), Australian actress
 * Glenallen Hill (born 1965), U.S. professional baseball player

title: Glen Allen


text:
Finnish coastal defence ship Ilmarinen

Ilmarinen was a Finnish Navy Panssarilaiva, Swedish Pansarskepp ("Armored ship"; a coastal defence ship by British classification). The unit was constructed at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland, and named after the mythological hero Ilmarinen from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. Ilmarinen was the flagship of the Navy from 1 May 1933 until her sinking on 13 September 1941.

History
During the early inter-war period the Finnish Navy consisted of some 30 ex-Russian vessels, most of them taken as war-trophies following the civil war. Never ideal types for the navy's needs, they were generally old and in poor condition. In 1925, a tragic incident highlighted the sorry state of the navy. An old torpedo boat was lost in a fierce storm, taking with her the entire crew of 53. A heated debate started, and intensive lobbying led to the adoption of a new Finnish Navy Act in 1927.

Prior to World War II, the fleet renewal program led to the acquisition or construction of five submarines, four torpedo boats, and two coastal defense ships. Among the last of their kind, FINNISH COASTAL DEFENCE SHIP Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen were two of the most concentrated naval artillery units ever built. They were designed by the Dutch company NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (a front for German interests circumventing the Treaty of Versailles), and were optimized for operations in the archipelagos of the Baltic Sea. Their open sea performance was de-emphasized in order to give the vessels their shallow draft and super-compact design.

Coastal defence ships were particularly popular in the Nordic countries, and began serving in the navies of Denmark, Sweden and Norway early in the 20th century. These vessels typically had heavy armament and good armor protection, but were relatively slow. Their sizes were around 4,000 tons, main armament consisted of guns between 210 and 240 mm, the armor corresponded to that of armoured cruisers, and speeds were between 15 and 18 kn. A coastal defence ship was somewhere between a cruiser and a monitor: slower than a cruiser but better armed, faster than a monitor, but with smaller guns. The coastal defence ships also varied among themselves; some of them were closer to cruisers, and others, such as the Finnish ones, were closer to monitors.

Being the second of her class, Ilmarinen was launched at the Turku shipyard on 9 September 1933. The ship went through its finishing trials and was handed over to the Finnish Navy on 17 April 1934. Her sister ship Väinämöinen had preceded her by two years.

The vessels had a compact design, with a high mast and large turrets for main and secondary artillery. Foreign comments on their design ranged from puns to praise. Not truly designed for open sea operations, the ships had a tendency to roll slowly and widely even in moderate seas. Travel on them was unpleasant, but deemed safe. Additional keels were later fitted, which improved the situation somewhat.

Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen had a displacement of 3,900 long tons, a maximum length of 93 m, and a draught of 4.50 m. Requirements of speed and range were moderate, as they were expected to operate near their home bases. Both vessels were equipped with four diesel engines that powered two electrical engines. These generated a total of 4,800 hp. There were also two smaller 100 hp auxiliary diesel engines. Maximum speed was 14.5 kn, and range was limited by the vessels' carrying capacity of only 93 tonnes of diesel oil.

The four 254 mm Bofors guns were massive for vessels of this size, and they could hurl a 225 kg shell up to 31 km. The secondary artillery consisted of eight 105 mm dual-purpose Bofors guns in four turrets. These were the primary defense against fast torpedo boats and aircraft. Additionally, the ships were equipped with four 40 mm anti-aircraft guns (initially British-made "pom-pom" guns, which, after mediocre performance in the Winter War, were replaced with Bofors guns) and two Madsen 20 mm cannons (later increased to eight).

The purpose of the coastal defence ships was to prevent landing operations and naval blockades that threatened vital sea trade. Thanks to the construction of vast defensive systems during the czarist era, Finland had strong coastal artillery in permanent positions. These defenses were to be supplemented with minefields in times of unrest. One of the main purposes of the navy was to buy time for ground forces to deploy to the islands in the Archipelago. In these confined spaces, coastal defence ships armed with 254 mm main artillery would have been a tough opponent for any ship of the era.

The Soviet Baltic Fleet was the obvious threat, and the Finnish vessels were meant to deter the largest Soviet ships, such as the battleships Marat and Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, as well as the cruiser SOVIET CRUISER Kirov, from venturing too close to Finnish shores.

Operational history
During her first years Ilmarinen made a few journeys to different ports in Finland, once running aground near Vaasa.

When the Winter War erupted, Ilmarinen and her sister ship FINNISH COASTAL DEFENCE SHIP Väinämöinen were dispatched to Åland in order to guard against a possible invasion. Due to a decree by the League of Nations, the Ålands were to be demilitarized in peacetime. The Finnish Navy was to transfer resources there when conflict arose.

The threat against the Åland Islands receded after thick sheet-ice began covering the Baltic Sea in December 1939. The two coastal defence ships sailed to Turku where they provided anti-aircraft support for the city. They were painted white to prevent Soviet bomber crews from spotting them, but were targeted by aircraft on several occasions, resulting in one death and several injuries.

During the Continuation War the two ships shelled the Soviet base at Hanko Peninsula on five occasions in July–November 1941. Ilmarinen fired twenty shells at the Soviet airfield at Täcktom on 12 July 1941. The airfield had previously been bombed by German Junkers Ju 88s of Küstenfliegergruppe 806.

The two Finnish coastal defence ship participated in Operation Nordwind on 13 September 1941, in which German forces were to take the Estonian islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. A group of Finnish and German ships were to be used in a diversionary operation to lure the Soviet fleet into battle – away from the real invasion force coming up from the south. Another German fleet, including the cruisers GERMAN CRUISER Emden, GERMAN CRUISER Köln, and GERMAN CRUISER Leipzig, waited further away to join the battle if the Soviets turned up; however, the northern fleet remained unnoticed and an order was given to turn around when they had reached a point some 25 nmi south of Utö. The formation was led by minesweepers, but some mines had escaped being swept. The crew of Ilmarinen failed to take proper notice of the dragging paravane cable. It is likely that the ship had caught one or two sea mines in the paravane, and when the ship turned, the mines struck the bottom of the hull and exploded. The explosion blew a large hole in the ship, which soon developed a strong list and keeled over. The ship sank in just seven minutes. Only 132 men of the crew survived, and 271 were lost, most of them trapped inside the hull. Fifty-seven were rescued by the patrol boat VMV 1, which had maneuvered to the capsized hull and took on as many of Ilmarinen's crew as she could. During this time she too was at great risk of being obliterated if Ilmarinen's magazines had ignited.

The survivors were later known as Ilmarisen uimaseura (Ilmarinen's Swimming Club). Among the survivors were Ilmarinen's captain, Commander Ragnar Göransson, and the Commander of the Finnish Navy, Commodore Eero Rahola, as well as Lieutenant Viljo Revell, later a renowned architect.

The loss of Ilmarinen is the greatest single loss of the Finnish Navy to date. The military command tried to keep the loss secret, but Swedish newspapers soon reported the incident, and the numerous sailor obituaries in Finnish newspapers could also have alerted the Soviets, who soon also reported the loss.

The ship was located in 1990. It was found upside-down, deeply embedded in mud, resting at a depth of 70 m. It is classified as a war grave. The wreck of Estonia is some 15 km away.

title: Finnish coastal defence ship Ilmarinen


text:
Wikipedia talk:Historical archive/Refreshing brilliant prose - History and religion

 * History of England
 * Keep but some resolution required: the first section is called Pre-Roman England, which is a bit odd as there is no specifically Pre-Roman English culture or entity. The next section gets it right: Roman Britain. The intro recognises that there is no England before the 10th century, but I stll feel that the conflicts I've touched on need to be addressed regardless of brilliant prose status. Maybe on the lines of History of Scotland? Bmills

 * Norse mythology (category)
 * Keep (but it needs headings/a table of contents/some editing for structure) Bmills

One would get the impression (wrongly, hopefully) that some people are simply adding their names to the 'remove' vote alongside everything without actually checking the articles. Either that or every single article is flawed, and the odds against that in all cases make that rather unlikely. FearÉIREANN 00:30, 4 Jan 2004 (UTC)


text:
Nikolai Kamov (engineer)

Nikolai Ilyich Kamov (Никола́й Ильи́ч Ка́мов; 14 September 1902 24 November 1973) was a Soviet aerospace engineer, a pioneer in the design of helicopters, and founder of the Kamov helicopter design bureau.

Biography
Kamov was born in a Russian family, in Irkutsk, but lived in Tomsk until his death on November 24, 1973 in Moscow. He graduated from Tomsk Polytechnic University with an engineering degree in 1923.

Kamov worked with Dmitry Grigorovich and later - for TsAGI. In 1940, he was assigned to establish the new helicopter OKB which was later named after him.

Memory

 * Buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
 * Since 1992 one of the two main Soviet-Russian helicopter manufacturers bears a surname of Nikolai Kamov

title: Nikolai Kamov (engineer)


text:
Dodge (disambiguation)

Dodge is a brand of automobiles and trucks.

Dodge may also refer to:

United States

 * Dodge, Nebraska, a village
 * Dodge, North Dakota, a city
 * Dodge, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
 * Dodge, Texas, an unincorporated community
 * Dodge, Wisconsin, a town
 * Dodge (CDP), Wisconsin, an unincorporated census-designated place in the town of Dodge
 * Dodge County (disambiguation)
 * Dodge Township (disambiguation)
 * Fort Dodge (disambiguation)
 * Camp Dodge, a military installation in the city of Johnston, Iowa
 * Dodge Island, an artificial island in downtown Miami, Florida
 * Dodge Street, Omaha, Nebraska
 * Dodge Park, North Omaha, Nebraska
 * Dodge Reservoir, Lassen County, California
 * Dodge (CTA station), a Chicago Transit Authority station
 * Dodge Arena, Hidalgo, Texas
 * Dodge House (disambiguation), various houses
 * Dodge Mansion (disambiguation), two mansions
 * Dodge Building, Newburyport, Massachusetts
 * Dodge Site, an archaeological site in Ohio

Elsewhere

 * Dodge Glacier, Greenland
 * Mount Dodge, Antarctica

People

 * Dodge (surname)
 * Dodge (given name)

Other uses

 * Dodge (photography), to lighten part of a photograph during printing
 * Dodge (cyclecar), manufactured in Detroit, Michigan from 1914 to 1915
 * DODGE (satellite) (Department of Defence Gravity Experiment), a satellite launched in 1967
 * Coupe Dodge or Dodge Cup, a provincial championship in the men's and women's amateur ice hockey leagues in Quebec, Canada
 * Dodge Report is a commercial construction reporting service, operated by McGraw-Hill
 * Dodge T. Dog, a presenter on the CBBC channel in the United Kingdom

title: Dodge (disambiguation)


text:
Arithmetic of abelian varieties

In mathematics, the arithmetic of abelian varieties is the study of the number theory of an abelian variety, or a family of abelian varieties. It goes back to the studies of Pierre de Fermat on what are now recognized as elliptic curves; and has become a very substantial area of arithmetic geometry both in terms of results and conjectures. Most of these can be posed for an abelian variety A over a number field K; or more generally (for global fields or more general finitely-generated rings or fields).

Integer points on abelian varieties
There is some tension here between concepts: integer point belongs in a sense to affine geometry, while abelian variety is inherently defined in projective geometry. The basic results, such as Siegel's theorem on integral points, come from the theory of diophantine approximation.

Rational points on abelian varieties
The basic result, the Mordell–Weil theorem in Diophantine geometry, says that A(K), the group of points on A over K, is a finitely-generated abelian group. A great deal of information about its possible torsion subgroups is known, at least when A is an elliptic curve. The question of the rank is thought to be bound up with L-functions (see below).

The torsor theory here leads to the Selmer group and Tate–Shafarevich group, the latter (conjecturally finite) being difficult to study.

Heights
The theory of heights plays a prominent role in the arithmetic of abelian varieties. For instance, the canonical Néron–Tate height is a quadratic form with remarkable properties that appear in the statement of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.

Reduction mod p
Reduction of an abelian variety A modulo a prime ideal of (the integers of) K — say, a prime number p — to get an abelian variety Ap over a finite field, is possible for almost all p. The 'bad' primes, for which the reduction degenerates by acquiring singular points, are known to reveal very interesting information. As often happens in number theory, the 'bad' primes play a rather active role in the theory.

Here a refined theory of (in effect) a right adjoint to reduction mod p — the Néron model — cannot always be avoided. In the case of an elliptic curve there is an algorithm of John Tate describing it.

L-functions
For abelian varieties such as Ap, there is a definition of local zeta-function available. To get an L-function for A itself, one takes a suitable Euler product of such local functions; to understand the finite number of factors for the 'bad' primes one has to refer to the Tate module of A, which is (dual to) the étale cohomology group H1(A), and the Galois group action on it. In this way one gets a respectable definition of Hasse–Weil L-function for A. In general its properties, such as functional equation, are still conjectural – the Taniyama–Shimura conjecture (which was proven in 2001) was just a special case, so that's hardly surprising.

It is in terms of this L-function that the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer is posed. It is just one particularly interesting aspect of the general theory about values of L-functions L(s) at integer values of s, and there is much empirical evidence supporting it.

Complex multiplication
Since the time of Carl Friedrich Gauss (who knew of the lemniscate function case) the special role has been known of those abelian varieties $$A$$ with extra automorphisms, and more generally endomorphisms. In terms of the ring $${\rm End}(A)$$, there is a definition of abelian variety of CM-type that singles out the richest class. These are special in their arithmetic. This is seen in their L-functions in rather favourable terms – the harmonic analysis required is all of the Pontryagin duality type, rather than needing more general automorphic representations. That reflects a good understanding of their Tate modules as Galois modules. It also makes them harder to deal with in terms of the conjectural algebraic geometry (Hodge conjecture and Tate conjecture). In those problems the special situation is more demanding than the general.

In the case of elliptic curves, the Kronecker Jugendtraum was the programme Leopold Kronecker proposed, to use elliptic curves of CM-type to do class field theory explicitly for imaginary quadratic fields – in the way that roots of unity allow one to do this for the field of rational numbers. This generalises, but in some sense with loss of explicit information (as is typical of several complex variables).

Manin–Mumford conjecture
The Manin–Mumford conjecture of Yuri Manin and David Mumford, proved by Michel Raynaud, states that a curve C in its Jacobian variety J can only contain a finite number of points that are of finite order (a torsion point) in J, unless C = J. There are other more general versions, such as the Bogomolov conjecture which generalizes the statement to non-torsion points.

title: Arithmetic of abelian varieties