US Navy cats, or catapults, have recently been steam-powered. The latest carriers, the Gerald R. Ford class, use electromagnetic cats.
The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and most luxury cars under the Lincoln brand.
Ford is the second-largest U.S.-based automaker (preceded by General Motors) and the fifth-largest in the world based on 2010 vehicle sales. In 2008, Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90 plants and facilities worldwide.
The Cadillac division of General Motors was founded by Henry Ford and was originally named the Henry Ford Co. He left, and his name was taken down in favor of that of a French explorer of the Detroit area, due to disagreements with the investors over the nature of its products - they wanted a low-volume luxury product, while Ford wanted to make a low-cost everyman’s car, which he did with his next company.
For his military successes (Notably in the Sepoy Mutiny and the Ashanti War) the 19th Century, General Sir Garnet Wolseley was nicknamed “Queen Victoria’s Only General.”
General Sir Frederick Roberts, because of his success in the Second Afghan War, was given the nickname “Queen Victoria’s Other General.”
Most of the other commanders had unimpressive records.
The full name of Henry Fonda’s character in the 1955 film Mr. Roberts is Lieutenant Junior Grade Douglas A. “Doug” Roberts.
Henry Fonda is the only actor to win an Oscar (for On Golden Pond, his first role opposite Katherine Hepburn) *after *being given the Lifetime Achievement kind, normally a consolation prize for an oldster who’s never won one.
In August 1949, Henry Fonda announced to his wife Frances, the mother of his children Peter & Jane, that he wanted a divorce after 13 years of marriage so he could remarry. Devastated by Fonda’s confession, and plagued by emotional problems for many years, Frances went into the Austen Riggs Psychiatric Hospital in January 1950 for treatment. She committed suicide there on April 14. Years later, Dr. Margaret Gibson, the psychiatrist who had treated Frances at Austen Riggs, described Henry Fonda: “He was a cold, self-absorbed person, a complete narcissist.”
Despite having long and illustrious careers in Hollywood, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn had never met before the filming of On Golden Pond.
Henry Fonda played the President of the United States in both Fail-Safe and Meteor. He also played a presidential candidate in The Best Man.
The Meteor Ireland Music Awards are the equivalent to Canada’s Juno Awards, the United States’ Grammy Awards, the Echo Awards in Germany and the United Kingdom’s BRIT Awards. The awards take their name from their sponsors, the Irish mobile phone network Meteor.
Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater about 35 miles east of Flagstaff on I-40, and then just south of I-40 about 5 miles. It is on private land, and can be visited by entering the private facility and paying a small fee. The Visitor’s Center is modern and well-maintained (as of April 2015). Scientists refer to the crater as Barringer Crater in honor of Daniel Barringer, who was first to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact. Because the United States Board on Geographic Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of “Meteor Crater” from the nearby post office named Meteor.
Judge Joseph Crater was last seen leaving a restaurant on West 45th Street, and entered popular culture of the 1930s as the “The Missingest Man in New York.” Despite massive publicity, no trace of him was ever found, and nine years later he was declared legally dead. He and his wife, Stella Mance Wheeler, were vacationing at their summer cabin in Belgrade, Maine. In late July, Crater received a telephone call. He offered no information to his wife about the content of the call, other than to say that he had to return to the city “to straighten those fellows out.” After spending some time with his showgirl mistress, he then spent some time in his law office destroying documents and getting a wad of cash to put in a pair of locked briefcases. He went to a show and dinner with the mistress, stepped into a cab, and the trail ends there.
The missing man formation, or missing man flyby, is an aerial salute typically formed in the USA by four aircraft aligned in a fingertip formation - seen from the ground, the aircraft form the fingertips of a right hand (imagine the viewer’s right hand above the viewer’s head, palm parallel to the deck and facing the viewer). The four fingertips (not the thumb) are occupied by four aircraft in this “finger four” formation. As the formation flies in a level, straight line above the intended viewers, the ring finger aircraft climbs directly above its former position and leaves the finger four formation while the other three aircraft continue straight.
It is done typically for a funeral or memorial event. This example is from Neil Armstrong’s memorial service.
The Missing Man formation has been rumored to have begun when British fighter pilots over the funeral of Manheim “The Red Baron” von Richthofen as a sign of respect by his fellow aces. The formation does find its birth in World War I.
It is British in origin and it was used infrequently and privately during the War. The first written account of the maneuver shown publicly is by the RAF in 1935 when flying over a review by George V. Prior.
During World War II, it evolved into a ceremonial traditions as part of RAF programs. The United States first began the tradition in 1938 during the funeral for MG Westover with over 50 aircraft and one blank file. The Missing Man formation in the United States was still seldomly used until the Vietnam War, when the public at large caught its first glimpse.
The USAF Thunderbirds were the first military aerobatics unit to ever perform the maneuver. They flew it for the first time to honor the men and women who were then POWs in Vietnam. Aerial demonstration squadrons have now adopted the formation and perform it during ceremonial events such as National POW-MIA Recognition Day, Memorial Day, during funerals and at interrment of repatriated remains of Prisoners of War and Missing in Action.
“Thunderbird” is the final track on Quiet Riot’s Metal Health album and is dedicated to Randy Rhoads, who was Quiet Riot’s original guitarist. The bulk of the song was actually written while Rhoads was alive; after his 3/19/82 death in a plane crash, a third verse was added as a dedication to him.
Gotta disagree there - it was well-established by 1955, when it was featured in The McConnell Story.
Anyway,
Thunderbird is a brand of cheap fortified (alcohol-added) wine made by Ernest and Julio Gallo, who also make Night Train. Fred Sanford’s favorite brand was Ripple, which he would mix with champagne to make Champipple.
NM
Created in 1953, the USAF Thunderbirds are the third oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the US Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946 and the prestigious French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931. The Thunderbirds currently fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and they have been since the 1980s.
Luke AFB in Phoenix AZ is an F-16 training base. Super Bowl XXX was played in nearby Tempe AZ back in January 1996. My brother, then a USAF F-16 pilot stationed at Luke, long before the game realized that the Super Bowl would be played near the 10th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger dusaster. He also realized that one of the Challenger astronauts, Dick Scobee, had a son who also was an F-16 pilot at Luke - Richard Scobee. Long before Super Bowl XXX my brother contacted Richard Scobee about the idea to fly a pregame tribute for the Challenger astronauts. Scobee was all for it. My brother contacted the NFL office and proposed the idea of having Luke F-16s with Richard Scobee fly the Missing Man Finger Four Formation during the pregame ceremonies. My brother coordinated the flyover between the NFL and the USAF. He did not fly in the formation but was on the sidelines before the game during the flyover.
Richard Scobee flew the Missing Man Finger Four Formation before Super Bowl XXX as a tribute to the Challenger Astronauts and to his father.
ETA: Wikipedia link - Dick Scobee - Wikipedia. Scobee led the Missing Man Finger Four Formation that day.
On January 15, 2009, immediately after Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sulllenberger ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River due to a bird strike to its engines,local commercial vessels from the NY Waterway and Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises fleets responded to the emergency. NY Waterway ferry Thomas Jefferson, commanded by Captain Vincent Lombardi, was first on the scene arriving at the side of the plane just four minutes after the ditching. NY Waterway ferry Governor Thomas H. Kean, under the command of 20-year-old Captain Brittany Catanzaro,was the second rescue craft to arrive reaching the plane a few minutes later. Due to Sully’s landing and the immediate rescuing of passengers from the river, all 155 occupants of the plane survived the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
Legendary NFL coach Vincent Thomas “Vince” Lombardi was born and raised in New York City. He was born in Brooklyn, to be precise.
Coach Lombardi’s first head coaching job was coaching basketball, not football. He coached basketball at St. Cecilia High School (was in Englewood NJ but is now closed; it closed in 1986), where he also taught physics and Latin.
A Vince Lombardi quote: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
There seems to be no kin connection between the coach Vince Lombardi and the ferry captain vincent Lombardi.