This is the end
Flying has been associated with the site ever since the Balloon Equipment Store relocated from Greenwich to Farnborough in 1905 to become HM Balloon Factory, sited on common land that was seized from the public by the military at the end of the previous century.
Many firsts are associated with Farnborough. Samuel Franklin Cody (1861-1913) conducted experiments with man-lifting kites there, and in 1908 he used his own aircraft and made the first recorded powered flight in England. In 1910, using his second constructed aircraft, he won the Michelin Cup for the first completed flight of over four and a half hours. Then in 1911 he built and flew the only British plane to complete the round-England race.
Frank Whittle developed the world's first jet engine at Farnborough and the UK became the first country to design and operate a commercial jet airliner. Much of the research for Concorde, the world's first and only supersonic airliner, also took place there.
In 1948, the Farnborough International Airshow became an international trade fair for the aerospace business. Initially an annual event, in 1962 it changed to its present biennial format, alternating each year with the Paris Airshow. It also became a truly international event, with exhibitors from all over the world, except those countries from behind the Iron Curtain. But since the end of the Cold War, exhibitors and visitors from behind the Iron Curtain have become the star attractions and now it has become really "international" as the airfield has also hosted a series of arms fairs and Copex (a marketplace for instruments of torture) to which some of the world's most repressive regimes have been honored guests of the UK government.
This year, the show was held from Monday, July 19 to Sunday, July 25 (Saturdays and Sundays are the only days that the public are admitted). There were more than 1,300 exhibitors and 150,000 trade visitors, and the great and the good spent an awful amount of money on military and civil hardware while being entertained each afternoon by a precisely choreographed flying display by various aircraft.
On Tuesday, July 20, at precisely 16:03, the great and the good were waiting for a sight of one of the most famous planes in modern warfare - the B52H Stratofortress.
For more than 40 years, B-52 Stratofortresses have been the backbone of the manned strategic bomber force of the United States. The use of aerial refueling gives them a range limited only by crew endurance. Indeed, it has an unrefueled combat range in excess of 8,800 miles (14,080 km) and it was about to demonstrate this skill by taking off in the USA and flying over the airfield at Farnborough using its famous global positioning system. After all, as the Gulf War involved the longest strike mission in the history of aerial warfare - when B-52s took off from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., fired off conventional air-launched cruise missiles and returned to Barksdale in a 35-hour, non-stop combat mission - a short hop over the Atlantic would be a doddle.
B-52s are capable of dropping or launching the widest array of weapons in the U.S. inventory. This includes gravity bombs, cluster bombs, precision-guided missiles, joint direct attack munitions, and atom and chemical bombs. In a conventional conflict, the B-52 can perform strategic attack, air interdiction, offensive counter-air and maritime operations.
All B-52s are equipped with an electro-optical viewing system that uses platinum silicide forward-looking infrared and high resolution low-light-level television sensors to augment targeting, battle assessment, and flight safety, thus further improving its combat ability and low-level flight capability.
The H model - first delivered in May 1961 - can carry up to 20 air launched cruise missiles and conventional cruise missiles. During Desert Storm, B-52s delivered 40 percent of all the weapons dropped by coalition forces.
During Operation Allied Force, B-52s opened the conflict with conventional cruise missile attacks and then transitioned to delivering general-purpose bombs and cluster bomb units on Serbian army positions and staging areas. They have also played, and are still playing, a vital role in Afghanistan and in Iraq dropping bombs from a very great height and destroying only known terrorists and enemy troops with pinpoint accuracy and precision.
On Tuesday, July 20 at 16:03, at the Farnborough International Airshow, the great and the good were waiting for the fly past of the B52H Stratofortress, one of the most technologically advanced planes known to man.
They waited in vain. The U.S. bomber was circling an airfield over five miles to the northwest. The organizers later issued this statement: "We can confirm that the Boeing B52H Stratofortress did not arrive at the airfield."
Neither capitalism nor democracy work in the way the textbooks would like you to believe. Capitalist corporations are no longer run for the benefit of shareholders, and governments are no longer run for the benefit of voters. Instead, most institutions have now been captured by managers, those who make careers out of spending other people's money and denying responsibility should things not turn out the way they intended.
Year after year the managers within all institutions have found new ways to get more of the money for themselves. Stock options, pensions, health benefits, golden handcuffs and golden parachutes are merely some of the more legal ways. Politicians and bureaucrats have done the same thing by altering the system so that their personal fiefdoms are protected and any challengers nullified.
Unfortunately, the whole fa~ade is about to come apart and the myths, the bubbles and the raised expectations of generations is about to unravel as the Social Mood leads the way to perspicacity, pessimism, and pauperism.
However, not all is lost, for as Steve Wieting, senior economist at Citigroup Inc., says, "Our studies suggest that hunter-gatherer societies offer full employment for all, simply providing the basic necessities of food and shelter." And a stray B-52H or two, unloading its cargo of the most modern of armaments, can send most societies back to the Dark Ages.
Many firsts are associated with Farnborough. Samuel Franklin Cody (1861-1913) conducted experiments with man-lifting kites there, and in 1908 he used his own aircraft and made the first recorded powered flight in England. In 1910, using his second constructed aircraft, he won the Michelin Cup for the first completed flight of over four and a half hours. Then in 1911 he built and flew the only British plane to complete the round-England race.
Frank Whittle developed the world's first jet engine at Farnborough and the UK became the first country to design and operate a commercial jet airliner. Much of the research for Concorde, the world's first and only supersonic airliner, also took place there.
In 1948, the Farnborough International Airshow became an international trade fair for the aerospace business. Initially an annual event, in 1962 it changed to its present biennial format, alternating each year with the Paris Airshow. It also became a truly international event, with exhibitors from all over the world, except those countries from behind the Iron Curtain. But since the end of the Cold War, exhibitors and visitors from behind the Iron Curtain have become the star attractions and now it has become really "international" as the airfield has also hosted a series of arms fairs and Copex (a marketplace for instruments of torture) to which some of the world's most repressive regimes have been honored guests of the UK government.
This year, the show was held from Monday, July 19 to Sunday, July 25 (Saturdays and Sundays are the only days that the public are admitted). There were more than 1,300 exhibitors and 150,000 trade visitors, and the great and the good spent an awful amount of money on military and civil hardware while being entertained each afternoon by a precisely choreographed flying display by various aircraft.
On Tuesday, July 20, at precisely 16:03, the great and the good were waiting for a sight of one of the most famous planes in modern warfare - the B52H Stratofortress.
For more than 40 years, B-52 Stratofortresses have been the backbone of the manned strategic bomber force of the United States. The use of aerial refueling gives them a range limited only by crew endurance. Indeed, it has an unrefueled combat range in excess of 8,800 miles (14,080 km) and it was about to demonstrate this skill by taking off in the USA and flying over the airfield at Farnborough using its famous global positioning system. After all, as the Gulf War involved the longest strike mission in the history of aerial warfare - when B-52s took off from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., fired off conventional air-launched cruise missiles and returned to Barksdale in a 35-hour, non-stop combat mission - a short hop over the Atlantic would be a doddle.
B-52s are capable of dropping or launching the widest array of weapons in the U.S. inventory. This includes gravity bombs, cluster bombs, precision-guided missiles, joint direct attack munitions, and atom and chemical bombs. In a conventional conflict, the B-52 can perform strategic attack, air interdiction, offensive counter-air and maritime operations.
All B-52s are equipped with an electro-optical viewing system that uses platinum silicide forward-looking infrared and high resolution low-light-level television sensors to augment targeting, battle assessment, and flight safety, thus further improving its combat ability and low-level flight capability.
The H model - first delivered in May 1961 - can carry up to 20 air launched cruise missiles and conventional cruise missiles. During Desert Storm, B-52s delivered 40 percent of all the weapons dropped by coalition forces.
During Operation Allied Force, B-52s opened the conflict with conventional cruise missile attacks and then transitioned to delivering general-purpose bombs and cluster bomb units on Serbian army positions and staging areas. They have also played, and are still playing, a vital role in Afghanistan and in Iraq dropping bombs from a very great height and destroying only known terrorists and enemy troops with pinpoint accuracy and precision.
On Tuesday, July 20 at 16:03, at the Farnborough International Airshow, the great and the good were waiting for the fly past of the B52H Stratofortress, one of the most technologically advanced planes known to man.
They waited in vain. The U.S. bomber was circling an airfield over five miles to the northwest. The organizers later issued this statement: "We can confirm that the Boeing B52H Stratofortress did not arrive at the airfield."
Neither capitalism nor democracy work in the way the textbooks would like you to believe. Capitalist corporations are no longer run for the benefit of shareholders, and governments are no longer run for the benefit of voters. Instead, most institutions have now been captured by managers, those who make careers out of spending other people's money and denying responsibility should things not turn out the way they intended.
Year after year the managers within all institutions have found new ways to get more of the money for themselves. Stock options, pensions, health benefits, golden handcuffs and golden parachutes are merely some of the more legal ways. Politicians and bureaucrats have done the same thing by altering the system so that their personal fiefdoms are protected and any challengers nullified.
Unfortunately, the whole fa~ade is about to come apart and the myths, the bubbles and the raised expectations of generations is about to unravel as the Social Mood leads the way to perspicacity, pessimism, and pauperism.
However, not all is lost, for as Steve Wieting, senior economist at Citigroup Inc., says, "Our studies suggest that hunter-gatherer societies offer full employment for all, simply providing the basic necessities of food and shelter." And a stray B-52H or two, unloading its cargo of the most modern of armaments, can send most societies back to the Dark Ages.
