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RS-25

The RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is used on the Space Launch System (SLS).

Designed and manufactured in the United States by Rocketdyne (later Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Aerojet Rocketdyne), the RS-25 burns cryogenic (very low temperature) liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, with each engine producing 1859 kN thrust at liftoff. Although RS-25 heritage traces back to the 1960s, its concerted development began in the 1970s with the first flight, STS-1, on April 12, 1981. The RS-25 has undergone upgrades over its operational history to improve the engine's reliability, safety, and maintenance load.

The engine produces a specific impulse (Isp) of 452 seconds (4.43 kN-sec/kg) in vacuum, or 366 seconds (3.59 kN-sec/kg) at sea level, has a mass of approximately 3.5 t, and is capable of throttling between 67% and 109% of its rated power level in one-percent increments. Components of the RS-25 operate at temperatures ranging from -253 to 3300 °C.

The Space Shuttle used a cluster of three RS-25 engines mounted at the stern of the orbiter, with fuel drawn from the external tank. The engines were used for propulsion throughout the spacecraft ascent, with total thrust increased by two solid rocket boosters and the orbiter's two AJ10 orbital maneuvering system engines. Following each flight, the RS-25 engines were removed from the orbiter, inspected, refurbished, and then reused on another mission.

Four RS-25 engines are installed on each Space Launch System, housed in the engine section at the base of the core stage, and expended after use. The first four Space Launch System flights use modernized and refurbished engines built for the Space Shuttle program. Subsequent flights will make use of a simplified RS-25E engine called the Production Restart, which is under testing and development.

Components
The RS-25 engine consists of pumps, valves, and other components working in concert to produce thrust. Fuel (liquid hydrogen) and oxidizer (liquid oxygen) from the Space Shuttle's external tank entered the orbiter at the umbilical disconnect valves and from there flowed through the orbiter's main propulsion system (MPS) feed lines; whereas in the Space Launch System (SLS), fuel and oxidizer from the rocket's core stage flow directly into the MPS lines. Once in the MPS lines, the fuel and oxidizer each branch out into separate paths to each engine (three on the Space Shuttle, four on the SLS). In each branch, pre-valves then allow the propellants to enter the engine.

Once in the engine, the propellants flow through low-pressure fuel and oxidizer turbopumps (LPFTP and LPOTP), and from there into high-pressure turbopumps (HPFTP and HPOTP). From these HPTPs the propellants take different routes through the engine. The oxidizer is split into four separate paths: to the oxidizer heat exchanger, which then splits into the oxidizer tank pressurization and pogo suppression systems; to the low-pressure oxidizer turbopump (LPOTP); to the high-pressure oxidizer pre-burner, from which it is split into the HPFTP turbine and HPOTP before being reunited in the hot gas manifold and sent on to the main combustion chamber (MCC); or directly into the main combustion chamber (MCC) injectors.

Meanwhile, fuel flows through the main fuel valve into regenerative cooling systems for the nozzle and MCC, or through the chamber coolant valve. The fuel passing through the MCC cooling system then passes back through the LPFTP turbine before being routed either to the fuel tank pressurization system or to the hot gas manifold cooling system (from where it passes into the MCC). Fuel in the nozzle cooling and chamber coolant valve systems is then sent via pre-burners into the HPFTP turbine and HPOTP before being reunited again in the hot gas manifold, from where it passes into the MCC injectors. Once in the injectors, the propellants are mixed and injected into the main combustion chamber where they are ignited. The ejection of the burning propellant mixture through the throat and bell of the engine's nozzle creates the thrust.

Oxidizer system
The low-pressure oxidizer turbopump (LPOTP) is an axial-flow pump which operates at approximately 5,150 rpm driven by a six-stage turbine powered by high-pressure liquid oxygen from the high-pressure oxidizer turbopump (HPOTP). It boosts the liquid oxygen's pressure from 0.7 to 2.9 MPa, with the flow from the LPOTP then being supplied to the HPOTP. During engine operation, the pressure boost permits the high-pressure oxidizer pump to operate at high speeds without cavitating. The LPOTP, which measures approximately 450 by, is connected to the vehicle propellant ducting and supported in a fixed position by being mounted on the launch vehicle's structure.

Then, mounted before the HPOTP, is the pogo oscillation suppression system accumulator. For use, it is pre-and post-charged with and charged with gaseous  from the heat exchanger, and, not having any membrane, it operates by continuously recirculating the charge gas. A number of baffles of various types are present inside the accumulator to control sloshing and turbulence, which is useful of itself and also to prevent the escape of gas into the low-pressure oxidizer duct to be ingested in the HPOTP.

The HPOTP consists of two single-stage centrifugal pumps (the main pump and a pre-burner pump) mounted on a common shaft and driven by a two-stage, hot-gas turbine. The main pump boosts the liquid oxygen's pressure from 2.9 to 30 MPa while operating at approximately 28,120 rpm, giving a power output of 23260 hp. The HPOTP discharge flow splits into several paths, one of which drives the LPOTP turbine. Another path is to, and through, the main oxidizer valve and enters the main combustion chamber. Another small flow path is tapped off and sent to the oxidizer heat exchanger. The liquid oxygen flows through an anti-flood valve that prevents it from entering the heat exchanger until sufficient heat is present for the heat exchanger to utilize the heat contained in the gases discharged from the HPOTP turbine, converting the liquid oxygen to gas. The gas is sent to a manifold and then routed to pressurize the liquid oxygen tank. Another path enters the HPOTP second-stage pre-burner pump to boost the liquid oxygen's pressure from 30 to 51 MPa (4,300 psia to 7,400 psia). It passes through the oxidizer pre-burner oxidizer valve into the oxidizer pre-burner and through the fuel pre-burner oxidizer valve into the fuel pre-burner. The HPOTP measures approximately 600 by. It is attached by flanges to the hot-gas manifold.

The HPOTP turbine and HPOTP pumps are mounted on a common shaft. Mixing of the fuel-rich hot gases in the turbine section and the liquid oxygen in the main pump can create a hazard and, to prevent this, the two sections are separated by a cavity that is continuously purged by the engine's helium supply during engine operation. Two seals minimize leakage into the cavity; one seal is located between the turbine section and the cavity, while the other is between the pump section and cavity. Loss of helium pressure in this cavity results in automatic engine shutdown.

Fuel system
The low-pressure fuel turbopump (LPFTP) is an axial-flow pump driven by a two-stage turbine powered by gaseous hydrogen. It boosts the pressure of the liquid hydrogen from 30 to 276 psia (0.2 to 1.9 MPa) and supplies it to the high-pressure fuel turbopump (HPFTP). During engine operation, the pressure boost provided by the LPFTP permits the HPFTP to operate at high speeds without cavitating. The LPFTP operates at around 16,185 rpm, and is approximately 450 by in size. It is connected to the vehicle propellant ducting and is supported in a fixed position by being mounted to the launch vehicle's structure.

The HPFTP is a three-stage centrifugal pump driven by a two-stage hot-gas turbine. It boosts the pressure of the liquid hydrogen from 1.9 to 45 MPa (276 to 6,515 psia), and operates at approximately 35,360 rpm with a power of 71,140 hp. The discharge flow from the turbopump is routed to, and through, the main valve and is then split into three flow paths. One path is through the jacket of the main combustion chamber, where the hydrogen is used to cool the chamber walls. It is then routed from the main combustion chamber to the LPFTP, where it is used to drive the LPFTP turbine. A small portion of the flow from the LPFTP is then directed to a common manifold from all three engines to form a single path to the liquid hydrogen tank to maintain pressurization. The remaining hydrogen passes between the inner and outer walls of the hot-gas manifold to cool it and is then discharged into the main combustion chamber. A second hydrogen flow path from the main fuel valve is through the engine nozzle (to cool the nozzle). It then joins the third flow path from the chamber coolant valve. This combined flow is then directed to the fuel and oxidizer pre-burners. The HPFTP is approximately 550 by in size and is attached to the hot-gas manifold by flanges.

Preburners
The oxidizer and fuel pre-burners are welded to the hot-gas manifold. The fuel and oxidizer enter the pre-burners and are mixed so that efficient combustion can occur. The augmented spark igniter is a small combination chamber located in the center of the injector of each pre-burner. Two dual-redundant spark igniters are activated by the engine controller and are used during the engine start sequence to initiate combustion in each pre-burner. They are turned off after approximately three seconds because the combustion process is then self-sustaining. The pre-burners produce the fuel-rich hot gases that pass through the turbines to generate the power needed to operate the high-pressure turbopumps. The oxidizer pre-burner's outflow drives a turbine that is connected to the HPOTP and to the oxidizer pre-burner pump. The fuel pre-burner's outflow drives a turbine that is connected to the HPFTP.

The speed of the HPOTP and HPFTP turbines depends on the position of the corresponding oxidizer and fuel pre-burner oxidizer valves. These valves are positioned by the engine controller, which uses them to throttle the flow of liquid oxygen to the pre-burners and, thus, control engine thrust. The oxidizer and fuel pre-burner oxidizer valves increase or decrease the liquid oxygen flow, thus increasing or decreasing pre-burner chamber pressure, HPOTP and HPFTP turbine speed, and liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen flow into the main combustion chamber, which increases or decreases engine thrust. The oxidizer and fuel pre-burner valves operate together to throttle the engine and maintain a constant 6.03:1 propellant mixture ratio.

The main oxidizer and main fuel valves control the flow of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the engine and are controlled by each engine controller. When an engine is operating, the main valves are fully open.

Main combustion chamber
The engine's main combustion chamber (MCC) receives fuel-rich hot gas from a hot-gas manifold cooling circuit. The gaseous hydrogen and liquid oxygen enter the chamber at the injector, which mixes the propellants. The mixture is ignited by the "Augmented Spark Igniter", an H$2$/O$2$ flame at the center of the injector head. The main injector and dome assembly are welded to the hot-gas manifold, and the MCC is also bolted to the hot-gas manifold. The MCC comprises a structural shell made of Inconel 718 which is lined with a copper-silver-zirconium alloy called NARloy-Z, developed specifically for the RS-25 in the 1970s. Around 390 channels are machined into the liner wall to carry liquid hydrogen through the liner to provide MCC cooling, as the temperature in the combustion chamber reaches 3300 °C (6000 °F) during flight – higher than the boiling point of iron.

An alternative for the construction of RS-25 engines to be used in SLS missions is the use of advanced structural ceramics, such as thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) and ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs). These materials possess significantly lower thermal conductivities than metallic alloys, thus allowing more efficient combustion and reducing the cooling requirements. TBCs are thin ceramic oxide layers deposited on metallic components, acting as a thermal barrier between hot gaseous combustion products and the metallic shell. A TBC applied to the Inconel 718 shell during production could extend engine life and reduce cooling costs. Further, CMCs have been studied as a replacement for Ni-based superalloys and are composed of high-strength fibers (BN, C) continuously dispersed in a SiC matrix. An MCC composed of a CMC, though less studied and farther from fruition than the application of a TBC, could offer unprecedented levels of engine efficiency.

Nozzle

The engine's nozzle is 121 in long with a diameter of 10.3 in at its throat and 90.7 in at its exit. The nozzle is a bell-shaped extension bolted to the main combustion chamber, referred to as a de Laval nozzle. The RS-25 nozzle has an unusually large expansion ratio (about 69:1) for the chamber pressure. At sea level, a nozzle of this ratio would normally undergo flow separation of the jet from the nozzle, which would cause control difficulties and could even mechanically damage the vehicle. However, to aid the engine's operation Rocketdyne engineers varied the angle of the nozzle walls from the theoretical optimum for thrust, reducing it near the exit. This raises the pressure just around the rim to an absolute pressure between 4.6 and 5.7 psi, and prevents flow separation. The inner part of the flow is at much lower pressure, around 2 psi or less. The inner surface of each nozzle is cooled by liquid hydrogen flowing through brazed stainless steel tube wall coolant passages. On the Space Shuttle, a support ring welded to the forward end of the nozzle is the engine attach point to the orbiter-supplied heat shield. Thermal protection is necessary because of the exposure portions of the nozzles experience during the launch, ascent, on-orbit and entry phases of a mission. The insulation consists of four layers of metallic batting covered with a metallic foil and screening.

Controller

Each engine is equipped with a main engine controller (MEC), an integrated computer which controls all of the engine's functions (through the use of valves) and monitors its performance. Built by Honeywell Aerospace, each MEC originally comprised two redundant Honeywell HDC-601 computers, later upgraded to a system composed of two doubly redundant Motorola 68000 (M68000) processors (for a total of four M68000s per controller). Having the controller installed on the engine itself greatly simplifies the wiring between the engine and the launch vehicle, because all the sensors and actuators are connected directly to only the controller, each MEC then being connected to the orbiter's general purpose computers (GPCs) or the SLS's avionics suite via its own engine interface unit (EIU). Using a dedicated system also simplifies the software and thus improves its reliability.

Two independent dual-CPU computers, A and B, form the controller; giving redundancy to the system. The failure of controller system A automatically leads to a switch-over to controller system B without impeding operational capabilities; the subsequent failure of controller system B would provide a graceful shutdown of the engine. Within each system (A and B), the two M68000s operate in lock-step, thereby enabling each system to detect failures by comparing the signal levels on the buses of the two M68000 processors within that system. If differences are encountered between the two buses, then an interrupt is generated and control turned over to the other system. Because of subtle differences between M68000s from Motorola and the second source manufacturer TRW, each system uses M68000s from the same manufacturer (for instance system A would have two Motorola CPUs while system B would have two CPUs manufactured by TRW). Memory for block I controllers was of the plated-wire type, which functions in a manner similar to magnetic core memory and retains data even after power is turned off. Block II controllers used conventional CMOS static RAM.

The controllers were designed to be tough enough to survive the forces of launch and proved to be extremely resilient to damage. During the investigation of the Challenger accident the two MECs (from engines 2020 and 2021), recovered from the seafloor, were delivered to Honeywell Aerospace for examination and analysis. One controller was broken open on one side, and both were severely corroded and damaged by marine life. Both units were disassembled and the memory units flushed with deionized water. After they were dried and vacuum baked, data from these units was retrieved for forensic examination.

Main valves
To control the engine's output, the MEC operates five hydraulically actuated propellant valves on each engine; the oxidizer pre-burner oxidizer, fuel pre-burner oxidizer, main oxidizer, main fuel, and chamber coolant valves. In an emergency, the valves can be fully closed by using the engine's helium supply system as a backup actuation system.

In the Space Shuttle, the main oxidizer and fuel bleed valves were used after shutdown to dump any residual propellant, with residual liquid oxygen venting through the engine and residual liquid hydrogen venting through the liquid hydrogen fill and drain valves. After the dump was completed, the valves closed and remained closed for the remainder of the mission.

A coolant control valve is mounted on the combustion chamber coolant bypass duct of each engine. The engine controller regulates the amount of gaseous hydrogen allowed to bypass the nozzle coolant loop, thus controlling its temperature. The chamber coolant valve is 100% open before the engine start. During engine operation, it is 100% open for throttle settings of 100 to 109%. For throttle settings between 65 and 100%, its position ranged from 66.4 to 100%.

Gimbal

Each engine is installed with a gimbal bearing, a universal ball and socket joint which is bolted to the launch vehicle by its upper flange and to the engine by its lower flange. It represents the thrust interface between the engine and the launch vehicle, supporting 7,480 lb of engine weight and withstanding over 500,000 lbf of thrust. As well as providing a means to attach the engine to the launch vehicle, the gimbal bearing allows the engine to be pivoted (or "gimballed") around two axes of freedom with a range of ±10.5°. This motion allows the engine's thrust vector to be altered, thus steering the vehicle into the correct orientation. The comparatively large gimbal range is necessary to correct for the pitch momentum that occurs due to the constantly shifting center of mass as the vehicle burns fuel in flight and after booster separation. The bearing assembly is approximately 290 by, has a mass of 105 lb, and is made of titanium alloy.

The low-pressure oxygen and low-pressure fuel turbopumps were mounted 180° apart on the orbiter's aft fuselage thrust structure. The lines from the low-pressure turbopumps to the high-pressure turbopumps contain flexible bellows that enable the low-pressure turbopumps to remain stationary while the rest of the engine is gimbaled for thrust vector control, and also to prevent damage to the pumps when loads were applied to them. The liquid-hydrogen line from the LPFTP to the HPFTP is insulated to prevent the formation of liquid air.

Helium system
In addition to fuel and oxidizer systems, the launch vehicle's main propulsion system is also equipped with a helium system consisting of ten storage tanks in addition to various regulators, check valves, distribution lines, and control valves. The system is used in-flight to purge the engine and provides pressure for actuating engine valves within the propellant management system and during emergency shutdowns. During entry, on the Space Shuttle, any remaining helium was used to purge the engines during reentry and for repressurization.

Development

The history of the RS-25 traces back to the 1960s when NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and Rocketdyne were conducting a series of studies on high-pressure engines, developed from the successful J-2 engine used on the S-II and S-IVB upper stages of the Saturn V rocket during the Apollo program. The studies were conducted under a program to upgrade the Saturn V engines, which produced a design for a 350,000 lbf upper-stage engine known as the HG-3. As funding levels for Apollo wound down the HG-3 was cancelled as well as the upgraded F-1 engines already being tested. It was the design for the HG-3 that would form the basis for the RS-25.

Meanwhile, in 1967, the US Air Force funded a study into advanced rocket propulsion systems for use during Project Isinglass, with Rocketdyne asked to investigate aerospike engines and Pratt & Whitney (P&W) to research more efficient conventional de Laval nozzle-type engines. At the conclusion of the study, P&W put forward a proposal for a 250,000 lbf engine called the XLR-129, which used a two-position expanding nozzle to provide increased efficiency over a wide range of altitudes.

In January 1969 NASA awarded contracts to General Dynamics, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, and North American Rockwell to initiate the early development of the Space Shuttle. As part of these 'Phase A' studies, the involved companies selected an upgraded version of the XLR-129, developing 415,000 lbf, as the baseline engine for their designs. This design can be found on many of the planned Shuttle versions right up to the final decision. However, since NASA was interested in pushing the state of the art in every way they decided to select a much more advanced design in order to "force an advancement of rocket engine technology". They called for a new design based on a high-pressure combustion chamber running around 3000 psi, which increases the performance of the engine.

Development began in 1970, when NASA released a request for proposal for 'Phase B' main engine concept studies, requiring development of a throttleable, staged combustion, de Laval-type engine. The request was based on the then-current design of the Space Shuttle which featured two reusable stages, the orbiter and a crewed fly-back booster, and required one engine which would be able to power both vehicles via two different nozzles (12 booster engines with 550,000 lbf sea level thrust each and 3 orbiter engines with 632,000 lbf vacuum thrust each). Rocketdyne, P&W and Aerojet General were selected to receive funding although, given P&W's already-advanced development (demonstrating a working 350,000 lbf concept engine during the year) and Aerojet General's prior experience in developing the 1,500,000 lbf M-1 engine, Rocketdyne was forced to put a large amount of private money into the design process to allow the company to catch up to its competitors.

By the time the contract was awarded, budgetary pressures meant that the shuttle's design had changed to its final orbiter, external tank, and two boosters configuration, and so the engine was only required to power the orbiter during ascent. During the year-long 'Phase B' study period, Rocketdyne was able to make use of their experience developing the HG-3 engine to design their SSME proposal, producing a prototype by January 1971. The engine made use of a new Rocketdyne-developed copper-zirconium alloy (called NARloy-Z) and was tested on February 12, 1971, producing a chamber pressure of 3172 psi. The three participating companies submitted their engine development bids in April 1971, with Rocketdyne being awarded the contract on July 13, 1971—although work did not begin on engine development until March 31, 1972, due to a legal challenge from P&W.

Following the awarding of the contract, a preliminary design review was carried out in September 1972, followed by a critical design review in September 1976 after which the engine's design was set and construction of the first set of flight-capable engines began. A final review of all the Space Shuttle's components, including the engines, was conducted in 1979. The design reviews operated in parallel with several test milestones, initial tests consisting of individual engine components which identified shortcomings with various areas of the design, including the HPFTP, HPOTP, valves, nozzle, and fuel pre-burners. The individual engine component tests were followed by the first test of a complete engine (0002) on March 16, 1977, after its final assembly line was established in the main Rocketdyne factory in Canoga Park, Los Angeles. NASA specified that, prior to the Shuttle's first flight, the engines must have undergone at least 65,000 seconds of testing, a milestone that was reached on March 23, 1980, with the engine having undergone 110,253 seconds of testing by the time of STS-1 both on test stands at Stennis Space Center and installed on the Main Propulsion Test Article (MPTA). The first set of engines (2005, 2006 and 2007) was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in 1979 and installed on, before being removed in 1980 for further testing and reinstalled on the orbiter. The engines, which were of the first manned orbital flight (FMOF) configuration and certified for operation at 100% rated power level (RPL), were operated in a twenty-second flight readiness firing on February 20, 1981, and, after inspection, declared ready for flight.

Space Shuttle program

Each Space Shuttle had three RS-25 engines, installed in the aft structure of the Space Shuttle orbiter in the Orbiter Processing Facility prior to the orbiter being transferred to the Vehicle Assembly Building. If necessary the engines could be changed on the pad. The engines, drawing propellant from the Space Shuttle external tank (ET) via the orbiter's main propulsion system (MPS), were ignited at T−6.6 seconds prior to liftoff (with each ignition staggered by 120 ms ), which allowed their performance to be checked prior to ignition of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), which committed the shuttle to the launch. At launch, the engines would be operating at 100% RPL, throttling up to 104.5% immediately following liftoff. The engines would maintain this power level until around T+40 seconds, where they would be throttled back to around 70% to reduce aerodynamic loads on the shuttle stack as it passed through the region of maximum dynamic pressure, or max. q. The engines would then be throttled back up until around T+8 minutes, at which point they would be gradually throttled back down to 67% to prevent the stack exceeding 3 g of acceleration as it became progressively lighter due to propellant consumption. The engines were then shut down, a procedure known as main engine cutoff (MECO), at around T+8.5 minutes.

After each flight the engines would be removed from the orbiter and transferred to the Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing Facility (SSMEPF), where they would be inspected and refurbished in preparation for reuse on a subsequent flight. A total of 46 reusable RS-25 engines, each costing around US$40 million, were flown during the Space Shuttle program, with each new or overhauled engine entering the flight inventory requiring flight qualification on one of the test stands at Stennis Space Center prior to flight.

Upgrades

Over the course of the Space Shuttle program, the RS-25 went through a series of upgrades, including combustion chamber changes, improved welds and turbopump changes in an effort to improve the engine's performance and reliability and so reduce the amount of maintenance required after use. As a result, several versions of the RS-25 were used during the program:
 * FMOF (first manned orbital flight): Certified for 100% rated power level (RPL). Used for the orbital flight test missions STS-1 – STS-5 (engines 2005, 2006 and 2007).
 * Phase I: Used for missions STS-6 – STS-51-L, the Phase I engine offered increased service life and was certified for 104% RPL. Replaced by Phase II after the Challenger Disaster.
 * Phase II (RS-25A): First flown on STS-26, the Phase II engine offered a number of safety upgrades and was certified for 104% RPL & 109% full power level (FPL) in the event of a contingency.
 * Block I (RS-25B): First flown on STS-70, the Block I engines offered improved turbopumps featuring ceramic bearings, half as many rotating parts, and a new casting process reducing the number of welds. Block I improvements also included a new, two-duct powerhead (rather than the original design, which featured three ducts connected to the HPFTP and two to the HPOTP), which helped improve hot gas flow, and an improved engine heat exchanger.
 * Block IA (RS-25B): First flown on STS-73, the Block IA engine offered main injector improvements.
 * Block IIA (RS-25C): First flown on STS-89, the Block IIA engine was an interim model used whilst certain components of the Block II engine completed development. Changes included a new large throat main combustion chamber (which had originally been recommended by Rocketdyne in 1980), improved low-pressure turbopumps, and certification for 104.5% RPL to compensate for a 2 isp reduction in specific impulse (original plans called for the engine to be certified to 106% for heavy International Space Station payloads, but this was not required and would have reduced engine service life). A slightly modified version first flew on STS-96.
 * Block II (RS-25D): First flown on STS-104, the Block II upgrade included all of the Block IIA improvements plus a new high-pressure fuel turbopump. This model was ground-tested to 111% FPL in the event of a contingency abort, and certified for 109% FPL for use during an intact abort.
 * RS-25E: It will be used on the Space Launch System for future Artemis program missions beginning with Artemis 5, as the RS-25D stock is intentionally being used up. Unlike previous versions, this engine is designed to be expendable. The powerhead is almost completely redesigned ( the specific design changes from the -25D have not been announced), and intended to incorporate various cost-saving measures and innovations in manufacturing. The first testing engine, E10001, passed all its qualifications and tests at NASA's Stennis Space Center, and demonstrated both a 113% FPL and a 30% increase in thrust.

Engine throttle/output
The most obvious effects of the upgrades the RS-25 received through the Space Shuttle program were the improvements in engine throttle. Whilst the FMOF engine had a maximum output of 100% RPL, Block II engines could throttle as high as 109% or 111% in an emergency, with usual flight performance being 104.5%. Existing engines used on the Space Launch System are throttled to 109% power during normal flight, while new RS-25 engines produced for the Space Launch System are to be run at 111% throttle, with 113% power being tested. These increases in throttle level made a significant difference to the thrust produced by the engine:

Specifying power levels over 100% may seem nonsensical, but there was a logic behind it. The 100% level does not mean the maximum physical power level attainable, rather it was a specification decided on during engine development—the expected rated power level. When later studies indicated the engine could operate safely at levels above 100%, these higher levels became standard. Maintaining the original relationship of power level to physical thrust helped reduce confusion, as it created an unvarying fixed relationship so that test data (or operational data from past or future missions) can be easily compared. If the power level was increased, and that new value was said to be 100%, then all previous data and documentation would either require changing or cross-checking against what physical thrust corresponded to 100% power level on that date. Engine power level affects engine reliability, with studies indicating the probability of an engine failure increasing rapidly with power levels over 104.5%, which was why power levels above 104.5% were retained for contingency use only.

Incidents

During the course of the Space Shuttle program, a total of 46 RS-25 engines were used (with one extra RS-25D being built but never used). During the 135 missions, for a total of 405 individual engine-missions, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne reports a 99.95% reliability rate, with the only in-flight SSME failure occurring during 's STS-51-F mission. The engines, however, did suffer from a number of pad failures (redundant set launch sequencer aborts, or RSLSs) and other issues during the course of the program:
 * STS-41-D – No. 3 engine caused an RSLS shutdown at T−4 seconds due to loss of redundant control on main engine valve, stack rolled back and engine replaced.
 * STS-51-F – No. 2 engine caused an RSLS shutdown at T−3 seconds due to a coolant valve malfunction.
 * STS-51-F – No. 1 engine (2023) shutdown at T+5:43 due to faulty temperature sensors, leading to an abort to orbit (although the mission objectives and length were not compromised by the ATO).
 * STS-55 – No. 3 engine caused an RSLS shutdown at T−3 seconds due to a leak in its liquid-oxygen preburner check valve.
 * STS-51 – No. 2 engine caused an RSLS shut down at T−3 seconds due to a faulty hydrogen fuel sensor.
 * STS-68 – No. 3 engine (2032) caused an RSLS shutdown at T−1.9 seconds when a temperature sensor in its HPOTP exceeded its redline.
 * STS-93 – An Orbiter Project AC1 Phase A electrical wiring short occurred at T+5 seconds causing an under voltage which disqualified SSME1A and SSME3B controllers but required no engine shut down. In addition, a 0.1-inch diameter, 1-inch long gold-plated pin, used to plug an oxidizer post orifice (an inappropriate SSME corrective action eliminated from the fleet by redesign) came loose inside an engine's main injector and impacted the engine nozzle inner surface, rupturing three hydrogen cooling lines. The resulting three breaches caused a leak resulting in a premature engine shutdown, when four external tank LO$2$ sensors flashed dry resulting in low-level cutoff of the main engines and a slightly early main engine cut-off with a 16 ft/s underspeed, and an 8 nautical mile lower altitude.

Constellation

During the period preceding final Space Shuttle retirement, various plans for the remaining engines were proposed, ranging from them all being kept by NASA, to them all being given away (or sold for US$400,000–800,000 each) to various institutions such as museums and universities. This policy followed changes to the planned configurations of the Constellation program's Ares V cargo-launch vehicle and Ares I crew-launch vehicle rockets, which had been planned to use the RS-25 in their first and second stages respectively. While these configurations had initially seemed worthwhile, as they would use then-current technology following the shuttle's retirement in 2010, the plan had several drawbacks:
 * The engines would not be reusable, as they would be permanently attached to the discarded stages.
 * Each engine would have to undergo a test firing prior to installation and launch, with refurbishment required following the test.
 * It would be expensive, time-consuming, and weight-intensive to convert the ground-started RS-25D to an air-started version for the Ares I second stage.

Following several design changes to the Ares I and Ares V rockets, the RS-25 was to be replaced with a single J-2X engine for the Ares I second stage and six modified RS-68 engines (which was based on both the SSME and Apollo-era J-2 engine) on the Ares V core stage; this meant that the RS-25 would be retired along with the Shuttle fleet. In 2010, however, NASA was directed to halt the Constellation program, and with it development of the Ares I and Ares V, instead of focusing on building a new heavy-lift launcher.

Space Launch System

On 14 September 2011, following the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA announced that it would be developing a new launch vehicle, known as the Space Launch System (SLS), to replace the shuttle fleet. The design for the SLS features the RS-25 as part of its core stage, with different versions of the rocket being equipped with between three and five engines. The initial flights of the new launch vehicle are making use of previously flown Block II RS-25D engines, with NASA keeping such engines in a "purged safe" environment at Stennis Space Center, "along with all of the ground systems required to maintain them." For Artemis 1, the RS-25D units with serial numbers E2045, E2056, E2058, and E2060 from all three orbiters were used. They were installed on the core stage by November 6, 2019. For Artemis 2, the units with serial numbers E2047, E2059, E2062, and E2063 will be used. They were installed on the core stage by September 25, 2023.

In addition to the RS-25Ds, the SLS program makes use of the Main Propulsion Systems (MPS, the "plumbing" feeding the engines) from the three remaining shuttle orbiters for testing purposes (having been removed as part of the orbiters' decommissioning), with the first two launches (Artemis 1 and Artemis 2) originally predicted to make use of the MPS hardware from Space Shuttles and  in their core stages. The SLS's propellants are supplied to the engines from the rocket's core stage, which consists of a modified Space Shuttle external tank with the MPS plumbing and engines at its aft, and an interstage structure at the top.

For the first two Artemis missions, the engines are installed on the SLS core stage in Building 103 of the Michoud Assembly Facility; they will be installed in the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy beginning with Artemis 3.

Once the remaining RS-25Ds are exhausted, they are to be replaced with a cheaper, expendable version designated the RS-25E. In 2023, Aerojet Rocketdyne reported reductions in manufacturing time and labour requirements during manufacturing of new-production RS-25 engines, such as a 15% reduction in fabrication time for the powerhead and a 22-month reduction in the time needed to produce a main combustion chamber.

On 1 May 2020, NASA awarded a contract extension to manufacture 18 additional RS-25 engines, with associated services, for $1.79 billion, bringing the total SLS contract value to almost $3.5 billion.

On 29 August 2022, Artemis 1 was delayed by a problem with engineering sensors on RS-25D #3 (serial number E2058) erroneously reporting that it hadn't chilled down to its ideal operating temperature.

On 16 November 2022, Artemis 1 launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B, the first time the RS-25 engine had flown since the Space Shuttle's final flight, STS-135, on 21 July 2011.

Engine tests
In 2015, a test campaign was conducted to determine RS-25 engine performance with a new engine controller unit, under lower liquid-oxygen temperatures, with greater inlet pressure due to the taller SLS core-stage liquid-oxygen tank and higher vehicle acceleration; and with more nozzle heating due to the four-engine configuration and its position in-plane with the SLS booster exhaust nozzles. New ablative heat-shield insulation was to be tested as well. Tests occurred on January 9 (500 seconds), May 28 (450 seconds), June 11 (500 seconds), June 25 (650 seconds), July 17 (535 seconds), August 13 (535 seconds) and August 27 (535 seconds).

Following these tests, four more engines were scheduled to enter a new test cycle. A new series of tests designed to evaluate performance in SLS-use cases was initiated in 2017.

On February 28, 2019, NASA conducted a 510-second test burn of a developmental RS-25 at 113 percent of its originally designed thrust for more than 430 seconds, about four times longer than any prior test at this thrust level.

On January 16, 2021, the RS-25 engines were fired again, during a hot-fire test as part of the Artemis program. The test was originally scheduled as an 8-minute test but was terminated at the 67th second due to intentionally conservative test parameters being breached in the hydraulic system of Engine 2's (serial number E2056) Core Stage Auxiliary Power Unit (CAPU) during the thrust vector control (TVC) system test. Engine 2's CAPU was shut down automatically, although if this issue had occurred during flight, it would not have caused an abort, as the remaining CAPUs are capable of powering the TVC systems of all four engines. The engine also suffered a different "Major Component Failure", in the engine control system, that was caused by instrumentation failure. This have triggered an abort of the launch countdown during an actual launch attempt.

On March 18, 2021, the four RS-25 core-stage engines were once again fired as part of the second SLS core stage hot-fire test, which lasted the full duration of 500 seconds, successfully certifying the Artemis 1 core stage for flight.

On December 14, 2022, a single development RS-25E, serial number E10001, attempted a 500-second hot-fire test. The test aborted at T+209.5 due to test systems subsequently interpreting signals from a group of improperly configured accelerometers during the hot fire as exceeding acceptable vibration limits. Tests of the engine continued in 2023; on February 8, 2023, it was fired for 500 seconds at 111% power, fitted with a new-production nozzle. Subsequent tests included a 600-second test at 111% power on February 22, a 520-second test at 113% power on March 8, a 600-second test at 113% power on March 21, a 500-second, 113% power level test on April 5, a 720-second fire that tested the engine's thrust vectoring gimbal system on April 26, a 630-second test on May 10, and five more 500-second, 113% power level tests without gimbaling on May 23, June 1, June 8, June 15, and June 22.

The RS-25E developmental unit E0525, with significant inclusion of new components including a redesigned nozzle, hydraulic actuators, flex ducts and turbopumps, was hot fire tested to 111% power levels for 550 seconds in the first in a series of certification tests beginning October 17, 2023. It was tested to 113% power levels for 500 seconds on November 15, and to 113% for 650 seconds with gimbaling on November 29, 2023, to 113% for 500 seconds on January 17, 2024,   January 23,  and January 29,  to 113% for 550 seconds on February 23,  to 111% for 615 seconds on February 29, and to 113% for 600 seconds on March 6   and 500 seconds on March 22 and 27, and April 3.

XS-1
On May 24, 2017, DARPA announced that they had selected The Boeing Company to complete design work on the XS-1 program. The technology demonstrator was planned to use an Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-22 engine. The AR-22 was a version of the RS-25, with parts sourced from Aerojet Rocketdyne and NASA inventories from early versions of the engine. In July 2018 Aerojet Rocketdyne successfully completed ten 100-second firings of the AR-22 in ten days.

On January 22, 2020, Boeing announced its departure from the XS-1 program, leaving no role for the AR-22.

title: RS-25


text:
Louise Woodward case

Louise Woodward, born in 1978 (age 46), is a British former au pair, who at the age of 18 was charged with murder, but was subsequently convicted of the involuntary manslaughter (reduced from the jury trial verdict) of eight-month-old baby Matthew Eappen, in Newton, Massachusetts, United States of America.

The baby had died from a fractured skull and subdural hematoma, and had a previously unnoticed fractured wrist. Although, initially found guilty of second-degree murder, Judge Hiller B. Zobel reduced Woodward's conviction to involuntary manslaughter during a post-conviction relief hearing, leading to her release after serving 279 days.

After her return to the United Kingdom, she began a career in law, and later ballroom and Latin dance teaching. In 2022, a Channel 4 documentary revisited the case, with a civil rights lawyer questioning the validity of the 'shaken baby syndrome' accusation.

Background
Five days after being admitted to Children's Hospital in Boston, Matthew Eappen fell into a coma and after being removed from life support, died on February 9, 1997, as a result of a fractured skull and subdural hematoma. He was also found to have a fractured wrist, an unnoticed and unexplained injury from a month earlier. Lois E.H. Smith, an ophthalmologist at the hospital, observed retinal hemorrhages judged characteristic of shaken baby syndrome.

Woodward was arrested by police on 5 February, and held for assault and battery initially, then murder when Matthew died. In a statement to the police, Woodward said that she "popped the baby on the bed", which she said at trial meant the same as "laid" the baby on the bed. However, a police officer testified that Woodward had said she was rough with the child and dropped him twice that day.

A grand jury decided on a first-degree murder charge in March. She was denied bail, and held until trial at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Framingham, a maximum-security prison. Media coverage of the case was intense, nowhere more so than in Britain.. Before the trial, the defense tried to move it to another city, arguing that a local jury would be too biased to render a fair verdict. The judge disagreed and denied the defence motion.

Polygraph testing
Before her trial on 7 May 1997, Woodward decided to undergo a polygraph examination conducted by David C. Raskin, a polygraph examiner hired by her own lawyers. During the course of the examination, she was asked questions about whether she caused injury to Matthew while he was in her care on 4 February 1997. She denied having caused any injuries to him, and Raskin concluded that her answers to these questions were truthful to a confidence level of 95 percent. Raskin's results were evaluated by Charles Honts, another polygrapher hired by her defense lawyers, who also claimed that she had answered truthfully when responding to relevant questions about whether she had injured him.

Trial
The presiding judge was Hiller B. Zobel. The prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorney Gerard Leone, along with Assistant District Attorney Martha Coakley, presented eight physicians involved in Matthew's care, including a neurosurgeon, an ophthalmologist, a radiologist, two pathologists, and an expert in child abuse, who testified to their belief that his injuries had occurred as a result of violent shaking, and from his head impacting with a hard surface. The defense challenged this, among other things, on the grounds that there were no neck injuries to him; injuries that they claimed would have been expected if he had been violently shaken. The prosecution had also claimed initially that his impact injuries were the equivalent of having been thrown from a two-story building, but they equivocated over this claim as the trial progressed. The defense presented expert medical testimony that his injury may have occurred three weeks before the date of death, implying that his parents, Sunil and Deborah Eappen, both of whom were doctors, might be implicated in negligence or abuse of the child. He had old wrist injuries that may have been incurred before Woodward even arrived at the house. She, however, claimed under cross-examination that she never noticed any slight bumps, marks, or any unusual behaviour by him at any time prior to the night he was taken to the hospital.

The lead counsel at Woodward's trial, and the architect of her medical and forensic defense, was Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project. Scheck was hired and paid for by her employer EF Education First's Cultural Care Au Pair. As part of the defense strategy, her attorneys requested that the jury not be given the option of convicting her of manslaughter (a lesser included offense), and instead either convict her of murder or find her not guilty. When personally questioned about this decision by the judge, she agreed with her lawyers. Legal experts speculated that the motivation for this strategy was to help EF Education First avoid a civil lawsuit from the Eappens. EF's screening process and training for au pairs had come under scrutiny; she had only received three days of training. If the death had been pre-meditated, then under Massachusetts law, EF Education First could not be held responsible. However, if the death was not pre-meditated, then it would indicate fault with EF Education First's Cultural Care Au Pair.

On 30 October 1997, after 26 hours of deliberations, the jury found her guilty of second-degree murder. The following day, Judge Zobel sentenced her to life in prison with a minimum of 15 years to be served.

Appeal
Woodward's legal team filed post-conviction motions to the trial court, and the hearing opened on 4 November. In the days following the verdict, it emerged that the jury had been split about the murder charge, but those who had favoured an acquittal were persuaded to accept a conviction. However, this was of no legal consequence. None of the jury "thought she tried to murder him", one member said.

On 10 November, at a post-conviction relief hearing, Judge Zobel reduced the conviction to involuntary manslaughter, stating that "the circumstances in which the defendant acted were characterised by confusion, inexperience, frustration, immaturity and some anger, but not malice in the legal sense supporting a conviction for second-degree murder", adding: "I am morally certain that allowing this defendant on this evidence to remain convicted of second-degree murder would be a miscarriage of justice".

Woodward's sentence was reduced to time served (279 days) and she was freed. Assistant District Attorney Gerald Leone then appealed the judge's decision to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Woodward's lawyers also asked the court to throw out her manslaughter conviction. The court affirmed the guilty verdict by a 7–0 vote. However, in a 4–3 split decision, the court rejected the prosecution's appeal against the reduction of the conviction to involuntary manslaughter, and the sentence, on 16 June 1998. Woodward then returned to the United Kingdom.

Aftermath
On returning home, Woodward gave a press conference, which was broadcast live in the UK and the USA. She said that she would be giving an interview to the BBC, for no money, and wanted to return to her life. The interview was conducted by Martin Bashir in a special edition of the flagship BBC programme Panorama, in which she maintained her innocence. In a later interview, Woodward admitted to "lightly shaking" the baby, an action recommended by the National Institutes of Health.

Matthew's parents filed a civil lawsuit to prevent Woodward from earning any profits from selling her story. She lost the lawsuit by default as her legal costs were no longer covered by the au pair agency.

Woodward studied law at London South Bank University, where she graduated with a 2:2 (Hons) degree in July 2002. In 2004, she began a training contract (mandatory work experience at an accredited firm that aspiring solicitors must serve) with the law firm North Ainley Halliwell, in Oldham, Greater Manchester. However, she dropped out of her training contract the following year in order to pursue a career as a ballroom and Latin dance teacher in Chester. She and her husband have a daughter, born in 2014.

In 2007, Woodward was named the 'most notorious criminal convicted in Massachusetts' by Boston law magazine Exhibit A.

The conviction had a side effect of defeating legislation in Massachusetts to restore capital punishment, when in November 1997, the Massachusetts House of Representatives deadlocked 80–80 on a bill to restart the practice; Rep. John P. Slattery said he had changed his mind from support to opposition after the case, saying he did not "want to be the one lying in bed some night wondering if the wrong person is being put to death".

Patrick Barnes, a paediatric radiologist at Stanford University, was a key prosecution witness in the trial, but in 2011, said he would not give the same testimony today. He said there had been a revolution in the understanding of head injuries in the past decade, partly due to advances in MRI brain scanning technology: "We started realizing there were a number of medical conditions that can affect a baby's brain and look like the findings that we used to attribute to shaken baby syndrome or child abuse", such as infections and in utero strokes.

In 2022, Channel 4 in the UK broadcast a documentary called The Killer Nanny: Did She Do It?, which looked at the case from both prosecution and defence perspectives. In it, civil rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith stated that "shaken baby syndrome is bullshit".

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

title: Louise Woodward case


text:
The Jungle Book (1967 film)

The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated musical adventure fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Based very loosely on the "Mowgli" stories from Rudyard Kipling's 1894 book of the same name, it is the final animated feature film to be produced by Walt Disney, who died during its production. It was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and written by Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson, and Vance Gerry. Featuring the voices of Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, and Sterling Holloway, the film's plot follows Mowgli, a feral child raised in the Indian jungle by wolves, as his friends, Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear, try to convince him to leave the jungle before the ruthless tiger Shere Khan arrives.

The early versions of both the screenplay and the soundtrack followed Kipling's work more closely, with a dramatic, dark, and sinister tone, which Disney did not want in his family film, leading to writer Bill Peet and songwriter Terry Gilkyson being replaced.

The Jungle Book was released on October 18, 1967, to positive reception, with acclaim for its soundtrack, featuring five songs by the Sherman Brothers and one by Gilkyson, "The Bare Necessities". With a gross of $23.8 million worldwide, the film initially became Disney's second-highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada, the ninth-highest-grossing film of 1967, and was also successful during its re-releases. The film was also successful throughout the world, becoming Germany's highest-grossing film by number of admissions. Disney released a live-action adaptation in 1994 and an animated sequel, The Jungle Book 2, in 2003; a live-action/CGI hybrid remake directed by Jon Favreau was released in 2016, with a sequel to that film in development.

Plot
In the jungles of India, Bagheera the black panther discovers an orphaned baby boy and brings him to a pack of wolves, who name him Mowgli. Ten years later, the pack learns that the murderous Bengal tiger Shere Khan has returned to their part of the jungle. Knowing that he hates humans and will stop at nothing to kill Mowgli, the wolves decide that the latter must leave; Bagheera agrees to escort Mowgli to a nearby "man village", though Mowgli is reluctant to go.

Bagheera and Mowgli rest in a tree where Kaa the python attempts to devour Mowgli but is stopped by Bagheera. The next morning, Mowgli encounters Colonel Hathi and his elephant herd. Following an argument where Mowgli refuses to go to the man village, he is abandoned by Bagheera. All alone, Mowgli meets and befriends Baloo, a laid-back and carefree sloth bear who promises Mowgli can stay in the jungle with him. Mowgli is soon kidnapped by monkeys who bring him to their leader, King Louie the orangutan. Louie tries to persuade Mowgli to teach him the ways of man, until Baloo and Bagheera arrive and rescue him, destroying Louie’s temple in the process. Whilst Mowgli is sleeping that night, Bagheera tries to convince Baloo that Mowgli must be taken to the man village. Baloo remains unconvinced until Bagheera reminds him that Shere Khan will try and kill Mowgli, as he is afraid of guns and fire. This persuades Baloo, who tells Mowgli the next morning that he must take him to the man village. Feeling betrayed, Mowgli runs away. Bagheera later finds Colonel Hathi’s herd and seeks their help in finding Mowgli. However, unbeknownst to any of them, Shere Khan has overheard this and now decides to hunt and kill Mowgli himself.

Whilst going through the jungle, Mowgli is ambushed by Kaa once more, who hynpotises him into a sleep, intending to devour him. However, before he can, Shere Khan arrives and tells Kaa that he is looking for a man cub; Kaa manages to hide Mowgli. After escaping Kaa, Mowgli reaches the wastelands of the jungle where he meets and befriends a group of vultures. However, Shere Khan soon arrives and tries to kill Mowgli before Baloo intervenes. Whilst Shere Khan attacks and nearly kills Baloo, Mowgli ties a burning branch to Shere Khan’s tail, forcing him to run away in defeat.

Mowgli now mourns the loss of Baloo; as Bagheera takes Mowgli away, Baloo reveals he is alive, much to everyone’s happiness. As they get closer to the man village, Mowgli becomes smitten with a girl getting water from the river. He follows her into the man village. Content that Mowgli is where he belongs, Baloo and Bagheera return to the jungle.

Voice cast

 * Phil Harris as Baloo, a lazy and carefree sloth bear who believes in the importance of letting go of worries and focusing on the simple things in life.
 * Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera, a wise and intelligent black panther who discovers Mowgli as a baby and later becomes his main protector. He also serves as the film's narrator.
 * Louis Prima as King Louie, a cool and smooth-talking orangutan leader of the monkeys from the ruins of an ancient palace who wants to learn how to make fire.
 * George Sanders as Shere Khan, a confident and menacing Bengal tiger who is deeply feared by most of the animals of the jungle.
 * Bill Lee was Shere Khan's singing voice, and Jimmy MacDonald provided his roars.
 * Sterling Holloway as Kaa, a sly and sinister Indian python who seeks Mowgli as prey, but fails each time he attempts to eat him.
 * J. Pat O'Malley as Colonel Hathi, a pompous Indian elephant who leads the Jungle Patrol.
 * O'Malley also voiced Buzzie, the leader of the vultures that Mowgli encounters during his journey.
 * Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli, also referred to as Man-Cub, a naive and stubborn 10-year-old human boy who was raised by the Seeonee wolf pack and wants to stay in the jungle despite the threat of Shere Khan.
 * Verna Felton as Winifred, Colonel Hathi's snarky and outspoken wife and the matriarch of the Jungle Patrol.
 * Clint Howard as Hathi Jr., also known as Baby Elephant, the son of Colonel Hathi and Winifred.
 * Chad Stuart as Flaps, one of the members of the vulture quartet.
 * Lord Tim Hudson as Dizzy, one of the members of the vulture quartet.
 * John Abbott as Akela, the leader of the Seeonee wolf pack who sends Mowgli to the Man-Village under Bagheera's guidance.
 * Ben Wright as Rama, Mowgli's adoptive wolf father.
 * Darleen Carr as the Girl who charms Mowgli into following her to the Man-Village at the film's ending.

Digby Wolfe voiced Ziggy, the fourth member of the vulture quartet. Leo De Lyon, Bill Skiles, Pete Henderson, and Hal Smith voiced King Louie's monkeys.

Early development
Walt Disney first considered making an animated version of Rudyard Kipling's 1894 collection of stories The Jungle Book in the late 1930s. In the early 1960s, after completing his work on The Sword in the Stone, story artist Bill Peet proposed The Jungle Book as the studio's next animated feature, seeing it as a "great chance to develop some good animal characters". Disney agreed and acquired the film rights to all thirteen Jungle Book stories from the estate of Alexander Korda (who had produced the 1942 film adaptation) by April 1962, after having spent the previous ten years in negotiations. At that point, Peet had written an early story treatment and developed the initial character designs. Disney originally intended to closely follow Kipling's work, planning to make a film that would be "both naturalistic and fantastic, suggestive of the compelling stag fight in Bambi".

Peet created his treatment with little supervision, as he had done with One Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone. He tried to make the story more linear, since the novel was very episodic, while preserving its ominous tone and adding more drama and suspense (in particular, Peet's story would start with wolves and Bagheera rescuing baby Mowgli from falling from a waterfall). He also decided on Mowgli's journey from the jungle back to the Man-Village as the film's central storyline. One of the few major departures from Kipling's works was the character of Baloo, whom Peet rewrote into a "big playful buffoon of a bear", with the role of Mowgli's serious-minded mentor given to Bagheera. Peet created an original character for the film – King Louie, the leader of the Bandar-log, who would kidnap Mowgli and try to get him to teach them how to make fire and rebuild the ancient city. Louie was also to show Mowgli the treasure under the ruins (a plot point borrowed from The Second Jungle Book), which would serve as a setup for the film's climax. After Mowgli had arrived to the Man-Village, he would get into an argument with the local hunter Buldeo, which would cause Mowgli to return to the jungle with a torch and use it to scare those who attacked or mocked him through the journey and confront Shere Khan, before being dragged to the ancient city by Buldeo in search for the treasure. After taking some of the treasures, Buldeo would attempt to burn the jungle to avoid the threat of Shere Khan, only for the tiger to attack and kill him, before being killed by Mowgli with Buldeo's rifle. Because of his actions, Mowgli would be hailed as a hero in both the jungle and the village and declared the first human member of the wolves' council.

After the box-office underperformance of The Sword in the Stone, Walt Disney decided to get more involved in the story development of The Jungle Book than he had been with the past two films. Upon reviewing the storyboards, Disney felt that Peet's approach was too dark and depressing, and held a meeting, insisting on making the story lighter and more aimed at the family demographic. Peet, who had been working on his treatment for over a year by then, refused, resulting in a long argument between him and Disney. On January 29, 1964, Peet left the studio after another fight with Disney over the preliminary recording for Bagheera's voice as well as Disney insulting him claiming that he should see Mary Poppins for "real entertainment". Peet would later admit in his autobiography that he was glad he didn't insult back at Disney over the film and left the studio when he did knowing that Disney would die two years after he left.

Rewriting
After Peet's departure, Disney assigned Larry Clemmons as his new writer and one of the four-story men for the film, giving Clemmons a copy of Kipling's book, and telling him: "The first thing I want you to do is not to read it." Clemmons still looked at the novel and thought it was too disjointed and without continuity, needing adaptations to fit a film script. Clemmons wanted to start in medias res, with some flashbacks afterward, but then Disney said to focus on doing the storyline more straight: "Let's do the meat of the picture. Let's establish the characters. Let's have fun with it."

Although most of Peet's work was discarded, the personalities of the characters remained in the final film. This was because Disney felt that the story should be kept simple, and the characters should drive the story. Disney took an active role in the story meetings, acting out each role and helping to explore the emotions of the characters, helping create gags, and developing emotional sequences. The Sherman Brothers re-imagined Peet's darker and more sinister version of King Louie as a more comedic character based around jazz and swing music. As Richard M. Sherman recalled: "...our discussion at the time [was], 'He's an ape, what does an ape do? Swings in a tree. The jazz is swing music and a guy literally swings if he's an ape'." Clemmons also created the human girl with whom Mowgli falls in love, as the animators considered that falling in love would be the best excuse for Mowgli to leave the jungle. Clemmons would write a rough script with an outline for most sequences. The story artists then discussed how to fill the scenes, including the comedic gags to employ. The script also tried to incorporate how the voice actors molded their characters and interacted with each other. The Jungle Book also marked the last animated film to have Disney's personal touches, before his death on December 15, 1966.

Casting
Walt Disney wanted to bring in more well-known performers to voice the key characters of The Jungle Book (which was a rarity in his past works). All the celebrities cast in the film had inspired the animators in creating the characters and helped to shape their personalities. The studio held many auditions for the role of Baloo, initially searching for an Ed Wynn-esque voice. The animators also tried out exchange students from India to see if they could get a voice with an indigenous quality, but the idea did not work out. Disney eventually suggested Phil Harris after meeting him at a benefit in Palm Springs, much to the surprise of the animation staff, who could not imagine Harris (who was a comedian) as Kipling's character. Harris nearly turned down the role after doing a test recording, as he could not see himself as the character, but reconsidered after the filmmakers allowed him to perform the way that felt the most comfortable to him. Wolfgang Reitherman said when they "told [Harris] not to be a bear, but to be Phil Harris, he got in front of the microphone and tore that thing apart". The casting of Harris prompted the story artists to expand the role of Baloo from an episodic part to one of the film's main characters. Many of Baloo's lines were improvised by Harris.

Disney initially considered Louis Armstrong for the role of King Louie; according to Richard M. Sherman, the idea was discarded after one of the writers said that "'NAACP is going to jump all over it having a black man playing an ape – it would be politically terrible'. That was the last thing on our minds, nothing we'd ever thought of, so we said 'okay, we'll think of someone else'". After Phil Harris was cast as Baloo, Disneyland Records president Jimmy Johnson suggested Disney to get Louis Prima, whom he thought to be great as a foil for Harris' character.

Disney had vultures bearing a physical and vocal resemblance to The Beatles, including the signature mop-top haircut. It was also planned to have the members of the band to both voice the characters and sing their song, "That's What Friends Are For". However, at the time, The Beatles' John Lennon refused to work on animated films which led to the idea being discarded. The casting of the vultures still brought a British Invasion musician, Chad Stuart of the duo Chad & Jeremy. In earlier drafts of the scene the vultures had a near-sighted rhinoceros friend named Rocky, who was to be voiced by Frank Fontaine, but Disney decided to cut the character, feeling that the film already had enough action with the monkeys and vultures.

Child actor David Bailey was originally cast as Mowgli, but during the film's production he hit puberty, and his voice changed. As a result, Wolfgang Reitherman replaced him with his son Bruce, who had just voiced Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. The animators also shot a live-action footage of Bruce Reitherman as a guide for the character's animation performance. Child actress Darlene Carr was going around singing in the studio when composers Sherman Brothers asked her to record a demo of "My Own Home". Carr's performance impressed Disney enough for him to cast her as the role of the human girl. Clint Howard was cast as Hathi Jr.

Early in the film's development, Bill Peet suggested Howard Morris for the role of Bagheera, but Disney did not approve of the choice, with Wolfgang Reitherman and other animators preferring either Karl Swenson or Sebastian Cabot. Cabot was the final choice. Several of the studio's voice regulars were cast in the film, including Sterling Holloway as Kaa, J. Pat O'Malley as both Colonel Hathi and Buzzie the Vulture, and Verna Felton as Winifred.

Animation
Animation on The Jungle Book commenced on June 1, 1965. While many of the later Disney feature films had animators being responsible for single characters, in The Jungle Book the animators were in charge of whole sequences, since many have characters interacting with one another. The animation was done by xerography, with character design, led by Ken Anderson, employing rough, artistic edges in contrast to the round animals seen in productions such as Dumbo.

Anderson also decided to make Shere Khan resemble his voice actor, George Sanders. Backgrounds were hand-painted—with an exception of the waterfall, mostly consisting of footage of the Angel Falls—and sometimes scenery was used in both foreground and bottom to create a notion of depth. One of Reitherman's trademarks was repurposing animation from previous animated films, including his. For example, animation of the wolf cubs were redrawn from the dalmatian puppies in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Animator Milt Kahl based Bagheera and Shere Khan's movements on live-action felines, which he saw in two Disney productions, A Tiger Walks and the True-Life Adventure film Jungle Cat.

Baloo was also based on footage of bears, even incorporating the animal's penchant for scratching. Since Kaa has no limbs, his design received big expressive eyes, and parts of Kaa's body did the action that normally would be done with hands. The monkeys' dance during "I Wan'na Be Like You" was partially inspired by a performance Louis Prima did with his band on a Las Vegas soundstage that convinced Disney to cast him.

Music
The film's score was composed by George Bruns and orchestrated by Walter Sheets. Two of the cues were reused from previous Disney films: the scene where Mowgli wakes up after escaping King Louie used one of Bruns' themes for Sleeping Beauty (1959); and the scene where Bagheera gives a eulogy to Baloo when he mistakenly thinks the bear was killed by Shere Khan used Paul J. Smith's organ score from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

The score features six original songs: five by the Sherman Brothers and one by Terry Gilkyson. Longtime Disney collaborator Gilkyson was the first songwriter to bring several complete songs that followed the book closely but Walt Disney felt that his efforts were too dark. The only piece of Gilkyson's work which survived to the final film was his upbeat tune "The Bare Necessities", which was liked by the rest of the film crew. The Sherman Brothers were then brought in to do a complete rewrite. Disney asked the siblings if they had read Kipling's book and they replied that they had done so "a long, long time ago" and that they had also seen the 1942 version by Alexander Korda. Disney said the "nice, mysterious, heavy stuff" from both works was not what he aimed for, instead going for a "lightness, a Disney touch". Disney frequently brought the composers to the storyline sessions. He asked them to "find scary places and write fun songs" for their compositions that fit in with the story and advanced the plot instead of being interruptive.

Original theatrical run
The Jungle Book premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on October 18, 1967, ten months after Walt Disney's death. The premiere served as a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Zoo, which had been founded the year before. By December 1967, The Jungle Book was released in theaters; some bookings were in a double feature format with a live-action film Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar (1967).

Produced on a budget of $4 million, The Jungle Book was a massive box-office success, grossing domestic rentals of $11.5 million by 1968. By 1970, the film had grossed $13 million in domestic rentals, becoming the second highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada. The Jungle Book also earned over $23.8 million worldwide, becoming the most successful animated film released during its initial run.

Re-releases
The Jungle Book was re-released theatrically in North America in 1978, 1984, and 1990, and also in Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. As part of Disney's 100th anniversary the film was re-released in cinemas across the UK on September 15, 2023 for one week. A re-issue in the United Kingdom in 1976 generated rentals of $1.8 million. The 1978 re-release increased its North American rentals to $27.3 million, which surpassed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs making it the highest grossing animated film in the United States and Canada until Snow White was re-released in 1983. The film's total lifetime gross in the U.S. and Canada is $141 million. When adjusted for inflation, it is estimated to be equivalent to $671,224,000 in 2018, which would make it the 32nd highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada.

By 1981, The Jungle Book was Disney's best perfomer overseas, with rentals of $45 million, including $13 million from a 1980 reissue in Spain. It is Germany's biggest film in terms of admissions with 27.3 million tickets sold, nearly 10 million more than Titanic's 18.8 million tickets sold. It has grossed an estimated $108 million in Germany, making it the third highest-grossing film in that country behind only Avatar ($137 million) and Titanic ($125 million). The film was the seventh most popular sound film of the twentieth century in the UK with admissions of 19.8 million. The film is France's ninth biggest film in terms of admissions with 14.8 million tickets sold. The film's 1993 re-release set an overseas record for a re-issue, grossing US$67.5 million overseas during that year. It opened at number one in Germany with a gross of more than $4 million in its first six days and opened in second place at the UK box office before moving to number one for two weeks.

Home media
The Jungle Book was released in the United States on VHS on May 3, 1991 as part of the Walt Disney Classics video line and in the United Kingdom in 1993. In the United States, the VHS release sold 7.4 million units and grossed US$ in 1991, making it the year's third best-selling home video release, behind only Fantasia and Home Alone. By 1994, The Jungle Book sold 9.5 million units in the United States. Home video sales outside North America reached a record 14 million units and grossed US$350 million by December 1993. Overseas sales reached 14.8 million units by January 1994, becoming the bestselling international VHS release in overseas markets, including sales of 4.9 million units in the United Kingdom, 4.3 million in Germany, and 1.2 million in France. By August 1994, it had sold 15 million units in international overseas markets, bringing worldwide sales to million units by 1994. As of 2002, The Jungle Book held the record for the bestselling home video release in the United Kingdom, ahead of Titanic which sold 4.8 million units.

It was reissued on video in 1997 as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection for the film's 30th anniversary. A Limited Issue DVD was released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in 1999. The film was released once again as a 2-disc Platinum Edition DVD on October 2, 2007, to commemorate its 40th anniversary. Its release was accompanied by a limited 18-day run at Disney's own El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, with the opening night featuring a panel with composer Richard Sherman and voice actors Bruce Reitherman, Darlene Carr, and Chad Stuart. The Platinum DVD was put on moratorium in 2010. The film was released in a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo pack on February 11, 2014, as part of Disney's Diamond Edition line. The Diamond Edition release went back into the Disney Vault on January 31, 2017. In the United States, the DVD and Blu-ray releases sold 12 million units between 2007 and 2016, and have grossed US$304 million as of August 2018. A Limited Edition from Disney Movie Club was released on Blu-ray and DVD combo on March 26, 2019. The film was re-released on Blu-ray/DVD/Digital on February 22, 2022, in honor of the film's 55th anniversary.

Critical response
The Jungle Book received positive reviews upon release, undoubtedly influenced by a nostalgic reaction to the death of Walt Disney. Time magazine noted the film strayed far from the Kipling stories, but "[n]evertheless, the result is thoroughly delightful...it is the happiest possible way to remember Walt Disney". Howard Thompson of The New York Times praised the film as "simple, uncluttered, straight-forward fun, as put together by the director, Wolfgang Reitherman, four screen writers and the usual small army of technicians. Using some lovely exotic pastel backgrounds and a nice clutch of tunes, the picture unfolds like an intelligent comic-strip fairy tale". Richard Schickel, reviewing for Life magazine, referred to it as "the best thing of its kind since Dumbo, another short, bright, unscary and blessedly uncultivated cartoon". Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote the film was "really, really good Disney indeed, and nobody needs to say a great deal more". Arthur D. Murphy of Variety gave the film a favorable review while noting that "the story development is restrained" and that younger audiences "may squirm at times". The song "The Bare Necessities" was nominated for Best Original Song at the 40th Academy Awards, losing to "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Gregory Peck lobbied extensively for the film to be nominated for Best Picture, but was unsuccessful.

Retrospective reviews were also positive, with the film's animation, characters and music receiving much praise throughout the years. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of based on  reviews, with an average rating of. The site's critical consensus reads: "With expressive animation, fun characters, and catchy songs, The Jungle Book endures as a crowd-pleasing Disney classic". In 1990, when the film had its last theatrical re-release, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly considered that The Jungle Book "isn't a classic Walt Disney film on the order of, say, Cinderella or Pinocchio, but it's one of Disney's liveliest and funniest". Charles Solomon, reviewing for the Los Angeles Times, thought the film's animators was "near the height of their talents" and the resulting film "remains a high-spirited romp that will delight children—and parents weary of action films with body counts that exceed their box-office grosses". In 2010, Empire described the film as one that "gets pretty much everything right", noting that the vibrant animation and catchy songs overcame the plot deficiencies.

Colin Greenland reviewed The Jungle Book for Imagine magazine, and stated that "the last film the old boy worked on himself and I reckon the last good animated feature in his traditional mode - not least because of some rather jolly jazz which, legend has it, Walt himself resisted, and was added after his death".

Criticism of racist presentations
There has been criticism of the portrayal of King Louie, who some have viewed as a racist caricature of African Americans. However, this was not the filmmakers' intention as the character and mannerisms of King Louie were largely based on his voice actor, Louis Prima, a well-known Italian American jazz musician and performer, who would have been instantly recognizable to audiences during the late 1960s. While Louis Armstrong was briefly considered for the part, the filmmakers quickly steered away from that direction upon realizing the racist implications.

In 2019, Disney added disclaimers warning of "outdated cultural depictions" at the start of the film on Disney+. In January 2021, Disney removed access to the film for child profiles in Disney+, and strengthened the warning message to read: "This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together".

Legacy
Since its original release in 1967, The Jungle Book has been widely acclaimed by the animation industry, with animators such as Brad Bird, Andreas Deja, Glen Keane, and Sergio Pablos citing the film to be their inspiration for entering the business; Eric Goldberg also declared that the film "boasts possibly the best character animation a studio has ever done." The character design and art direction of The Jungle Book heavily influenced the animators of Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Tarzan (1999), and Lilo & Stitch (2002) in creating animal characters for each of these films. Elements of The Jungle Book were recycled in the later Disney feature film, Robin Hood (1973), such as Baloo being inspiration for Little John (who not only was a bear, but also voiced by Phil Harris); in particular, the dance sequence between Baloo and King Louie was rotoscoped for Little John and Lady Cluck's dance.

In 1968, Jimmy Johnson approached Larry Clemmons to write a sequel to The Jungle Book for a story-telling records; the album, titled More Jungle Book... Further Adventures Of Baloo And Mowgli, was released by Disneyland Records the following year, with Phil Harris and Louis Prima reprising their film roles. In 2003, DisneyToon Studios released a theatrical sequel to the original film, The Jungle Book 2; screenwriter Robert Reece also pitched the idea of a third film to Disney executives in 2005, but the project never materialized.

In 1978, a live-action sketch titled The Wonderful World of Ernie from Morecambe and Wise parodied "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" by doing a full reenactment of the scene with sets and costumes and lip-synching to the song's original recording (including the characters' spoken dialogue in the middle of the song). The sketch starred Danny Rolnick as Mowgli, Derek Griffiths as Bagheera, Eric Morecambe as Baloo and Ernie Wise as King Louie.

Many characters appear in the 1990–91 animated series TaleSpin. Between 1996 and 1998, the TV series Jungle Cubs told the stories of Baloo, Hahti, Bagheera, Louie, Kaa, and Shere Khan when they were children. Disney later made a live-action adaptation of the film, which was more of a realistic action-adventure film with somewhat-more adult themes. The film, released in 1994, differs even more from the book than its animated counterpart, but was still a box-office success. In 1998, Disney released a direct to video film entitled The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story. A new live-action version of The Jungle Book was released by Disney in 2016, which even reused most of the songs of the animated film, with some lyrical reworking by original composer Richard M. Sherman.

There are two video games based on the film: The Jungle Book was a platformer released in 1993 for Master System, Mega Drive, Game Gear, Super NES, Game Boy and PC. A version for the Game Boy Advance was later released in 2003. The Jungle Book Groove Party was a dance mat game released in 2000 for PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Kaa and Shere Khan have also made cameo appearances in another Disney video game, QuackShot. A world based on the film was intended to appear more than once in the Square Enix-Disney Kingdom Hearts video game series, but was omitted both times, first in the first game because it featured a similar world based on Tarzan, and second in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, although areas of the world are accessible via hacking codes. Baloo and Mowgli appear as interactive characters in Adventureland on Kinect: Disneyland Adventures released in 2011 and re-released in 2017. Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo, Shere Khan and King Louie appear as playable characters in the video game Disney Magic Kingdoms. Baloo appears as a playable character in Disney Mirrorverse released in 2022. Baloo and Mowgli appear as a playable characters in the kart racing game Disney Speedstorm released in 2022. Since the film's release, many of the film's characters appeared in House of Mouse, The Lion King 1½, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Aladdin and the King of Thieves. In December 2010, a piece of artwork by British artist Banksy featuring The Jungle Book characters which had been commissioned by Greenpeace to help raise awareness of deforestation went on sale for the sum of £80,000.

Exhibition
A behind-the-scenes exhibition titled Walt Disney's The Jungle Book: Making a Masterpiece, guest-curated by Andreas Deja took place at The Walt Disney Family Museum from June 23, 2022, to January 8, 2023. The event celebrated the film's 55th anniversary by displaying over 600 pieces of rare artwork, manuscripts, photos, animation drawings and cels as well as ephemera. It also detailed the entire story of the film's production, its release and the worldwide recognition it has earned through the years. A Members Only Preview which included a special talk with Andreas Deja, Bruce Reitherman, Darleen Carr and Floyd Norman took place on June 22, 2022. An extensive companion book, Walt Disney's The Jungle Book: Making a Masterpiece also written by Deja was originally slated to be published by Weldon Owen on September 20, 2022, before it was changed to November 1.

Special screenings of the film took place at the museum's theater from July 2 to July 31, 2022.

title: The Jungle Book (1967 film)


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George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle is an American animated television series produced and created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who also created The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. The character George was inspired by the story of Tarzan and a cartoon characterization of George Eiferman (Mr. America, Mr. Universe, IFBB Hall of Famer) drawn by a cook on his minesweeper in the Navy during World War II. The series aired first-run for 17 episodes on Saturday mornings from September 9 to December 30, 1967, on the ABC-TV network. Then, rather than commissioning new episodes, the network was content to repeat the 17 episodes, keeping George of the Jungle on its Saturday schedule until September 19, 1970.

Program format
Each episode featured three segments in the form of three unrelated cartoons: George of the Jungle, Tom Slick, and Super Chicken. All three theme songs were written by the team of Stan Worth and Sheldon Allman, with Worth primarily composing the music and Allman handling the lyrics. Each of the cartoons ended with a strike on the tympani (kettle drum), which changed to an ascending tone, following a pun.

Unlike previous Ward series, the animation production was done in Hollywood using veteran animators Phil Duncan, Rod Scribner, and Rudy Zamora, among others. Ward mainstays Bill Scott, June Foray, Paul Frees, and Daws Butler provided most of the character voices over all three segments.

The cartoons are technically more advanced than the animation in Ward's earlier series, which originated from Gamma Productions, a Mexican studio sponsored by Ward. He was so pleased with George of the Jungle that he allowed production to go over budget, which resulted in considerable financial loss, ultimately limiting the series to 17 episodes.

In 2008, Classic Media and Genius Entertainment released the complete series on DVD.

George of the Jungle
The title segment, George of the Jungle, is a parody of the Tarzan stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs. George (voiced by Bill Scott) is a dim-witted but big-hearted "ape man" who is always called upon by District Commissioner Alistair (voiced by Paul Frees) to save inhabitants of the jungle territory of Mbwebwe Province in Africa from various threats.

In the opening title, George is depicted swinging on vines, repeatedly slamming face-first into trees or other obstacles even as theme-song singers warn him to "watch out for that tree!" Another running gag is that George keeps forgetting that he lives in a treehouse, falling from it to the ground every time he leaves home.

George's "beloved mate" is Ursula (voiced by June Foray), a Jane-like character (The character was referred to as Jane in the first episode and original pilot ) far brighter than George,. George's closest friend is an ape named Ape (voiced by Paul Frees impersonating Ronald Colman) who, like Ursula, is far more intelligent than George. George has a pet elephant named Shep, who behaves like a lap dog, or, as George refers to him, a "great big peanut-lovin' poochie," and who George thinks is a dog. Also of note is the Tooky Tooky (or Tookie Tookie) bird, famous for his call: "Ah ah ee ee tooky tooky!"

George's two most frequent foes are a pair of stereotypical hunters named "Tiger" Titheridge (voiced by Daws Butler) and "Weevil" Plumtree (voiced by Paul Frees). Tiger, the taller of the two, wears a pith helmet and khakis, has a pencil moustache, and speaks in an Oxford accent, while Weevil talks like a pirate and wears a white t-shirt and shorts with a bush hat. Another one of George's recurring enemies is a mad scientist named Dr. Chicago (voiced by Daws Butler).

George, though hopelessly unintelligent, possesses substantial strength and jungle instincts that allow him to track down enemies. When trapped in a seemingly hopeless situation, he carries a miniature phrase book with numerous animal calls to summon help—although he usually gives the wrong call.

Tom Slick
Tom Slick features the title character (voiced by Bill Scott), a racecar driver who competes in races with his trusty vehicle, the Thunderbolt Greaseslapper. He is accompanied by his girlfriend Marigold (voiced by June Foray), and his elderly mechanic Gertie Growler (also voiced by Bill Scott). Tom's chief antagonists are Baron Otto Matic (voiced by Paul Frees) and his lackey Clutcher (voiced by Daws Butler impersonating Frank Fontaine as "Crazy Guggenheim"), whom the Baron often hits across the head with a monkey wrench when he messes up Otto's plots.

Super Chicken
Super Chicken features the title character (voiced by Bill Scott in a Boston Brahmin accent), a superhero (who, in "real life", is wealthy Henry Cabot Henhouse III) with a vegetarian lion sidekick named Fred (voiced by Paul Frees impersonating Ed Wynn). Super Chicken usually begins his adventures with the battle cry, "To the Super Coop, Fred!", to which Fred replies, "Roger Willcox!" When Fred comments on his latest injury, Super Chicken responds with a variation on the theme, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!" Following his own mistakes, Super Chicken remarks, "I'm glad no one was here to see that!"

Episodes
Each of the following episodes consists of a George of the Jungle cartoon, a Super Chicken cartoon, and a Tom Slick cartoon.

Home media
On February 12, 2008, Classic Media released a complete collection of the 1967 series which included, as a bonus feature, the original pilot cartoons for both George of the Jungle and Super Chicken.

Reception
In 2002, TV Guide ranked George of the Jungle #30 on its "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list.

Comic book
Gold Key Comics published two issues of a comic book based on the series in 1969.

Films
In 1997, the segment was adapted into a live-action film, titled George of the Jungle. Brendan Fraser played the title role, with Leslie Mann as Ursula, John Cleese as the voice of Ape and Thomas Haden Church as the villain, Lyle Van De Groot. A direct-to-video sequel, George of the Jungle 2, starring Christopher Showerman as George and Julie Benz as Ursula, was released in 2003.

2007 series
Classic Media developed a new George of the Jungle Flash animation series 40 years later in 2007. It now utilizes a co-production. The new version of the series is co-produced with Studio B Productions and Teletoon Canada (with other studios also involved), and currently airs on Teletoon in Canada and on Cartoon Network in the United States (starting with a Christmas-themed episode December 21, 2007). The series was scheduled to air on Nicktoons in the United Kingdom and Disney Channel Asia in Southeast Asia. The series officially premiered on Cartoon Network on January 18. Both seasons are available digitally on iTunes.

The series initially ran 26 episodes, with two George stories per episode for a total of 52 stories. In 2016, 26 additional episodes were made, also with two George stories per episode.

Cultural references
"Weird Al" Yankovic did a cover version of the George of the Jungle theme on his 1985 album Dare to Be Stupid, the only straight cover Yankovic ever released on an album, and which later appeared on the soundtrack of the 1997 live-action film. The music video for Al's song Like A Surgeon, also from the Dare to be Stupid album, features a doctor watching a clip of the TV series.

Another cover of the theme by The Presidents of the United States of America also appeared on the soundtrack and was the title theme for the film.

The Rhino Records 1989 release Rerun Rock: Superstars Sing Television Themes included a cover version performed in the style of "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin and sung by Scott Shaw.

title: George of the Jungle


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Palmas del Mar

Palmas del Mar is a beach resort community consisting of a country club, golf courses, tennis, a beach club, residences and a hotel. It is located in the municipality of Humacao, Puerto Rico, on the southeast corner of the island.

Features
Set in approximately 2750 acre of land, the resort includes over 25 different neighborhoods, including single family homes, estates and villas.

Palmas del Mar residential community has a bank, retail shops, The Palmas Academy, a private school, an equestrian center; two golf courses, 20 tennis courts, 16 restaurants, a country club with spa, a beach club, security with strict-access control 24 hours a day and a full-service marina and yacht club. Several properties within Palmas del Mar were purchased in 2014 by Encanto Group.

Doral Resort and Candelero Beach Resort are also located in Palmas del Mar.

The school inside the resort is called The Palmas Academy. It was founded in 1992 by a group of parents and educators. The academy is a coeducational, nonsectarian institution with English as the language of instruction and an excellent Spanish curriculum. The campus has 18 acre of land surrounded by a natural setting. The academy has access to many of the facilities within Palmas del Mar. Sports, such as soccer, volleyball, golf, cross country, basketball, tennis, track and field, and swimming are part of the curriculum. In addition, the school has several clubs, such as The Drama Club, The Debate Club, The Environmental Club, The Living Green Team, El Club de Oratoria, Advanced Art, The Student Council, among others.

The Palmas del Mar Tropical Forest is a conservation easement located within and near Palmas del Mar.

In popular culture
A large portion of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo's second feature film, Una Aventura Llamada Menudo (1982), was filmed at Palmas del Mar.

title: Palmas del Mar