Sunday, September 22, 2024
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Lex Anteinternet: Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or les...
Friday, September 6, 2024
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Lex Anteinternet: Space National Guard? Spare us.
Space National Guard? Spare us.
The time has come to create a Space National Guard as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Space Force. So as president, I will sign historic legislation creating a space National Guard.
Donald Trump, yesterday, at the National Guard Association Convention.
The Space Force is frankly absurd and ought to be abolished, with its enlisted men folded back into the Air Force and its officers assigned permanent duty at Tasty Freeze drive up windows.
But a Space Force National Guard?
Please, no.
Of course, if a bill like that passes through Congress, and as goofy as Congress has been in recent years, it probably would, no State Governor is going to turn down the chance to have the Mos Eisley Space Guard station put in their state, so every state will end up with a squadron of "Guardians".
The Space Force is flat out dumb. It's duties belong in the Air Force. One of the unfortunate legacies of the Trump administration, however, is this absurd new branch of the service.
Would that sanity would reign and it would go away.
Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, August 27, 1924. First flight of the USS Los Angeles.
Wednesday, August 27, 1924. Color photos over the wire.
The German built, due to reparations, USS Los Angeles made its first flight.
She was the longest serving rigid airship, serving, with interruptions, until 1939.
Last edition:
Monday, August 25, 1924. Ratifying the Dawes Plan and questionable movies.
Monday, August 19, 2024
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Lex Anteinternet: Friday, August 14, 1914. First bombing raid.
Friday, August 14, 1914. First bombing raid.
The French First Army advanced on German forces near Sarrebourg, Lorraine, France.
Albanian rebels attacked Durrës, the capital of Albania, but were driven back by Romanian volunteer forces, showing how confusing the Great War already was.
The first real bomber, the the French Voisin III, made its first combat run. An attack on German airship hangars at Metz-Frescaty Air Base in Germany.
The Austro Hungarian steamer SS Baron Gautsch struck a mine off of Croatia and sank, killing 150 passengers.
Friday, August 2, 2024
Lex Anteinternet: Monday, August 2, 1909. The United States Army accepted the delivery of a Wright Military Flyer.
Monday, August 2, 1909. Two firsts.
The United States Army accepted the delivery of a Wright Military Flyer.
The Wright brothers were hired at the same time to train the first two pilots, Lts. Frank P. Lahm and Frederick E. Humphreys
It was just six years after the first flight, and less than a decade before airplanes would become a major weapon of war.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Friday, July 26, 2024
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Saturday, July 13, 2024
Sunday, June 23, 2024
Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transcontinental flight.
Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transcontinental flight.
1st Lt. Russell Maughan made the first dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the United States.
Landing at Crissy Field in San Francisco one minute before technical sundown, he had started the day off at Mitchel Field, Long Island and had flown his Curtiss P-1 across the country with stops in Dayton, Ohio; St. Joseph, Missouri; North Platte, Nebraska; Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Bonneville Salt Flats at Salduro
Maughan was a significant early military aviation pioneer who has appeared on this site before.
Last prior edition:
Wednesday, June 18, 1924. The Cummins Incident.
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, June 13, 1944. D+7. First use of V-1s on London.
Tuesday, June 13, 1944. D+7. Heavy fighting in Normandy.
The first V-1 rockets were launched on London.
V-1s are, basically, a pulse jet drone, and therefore heralded an advance in weaponry which we're only now seeing the full application of in combat. One of a variety of late war German "Wunderwaffe", they were primitive in their category and while they affected terror, they stood no chance of being war altering. The same can not be said of the V-2, which was a ballistic missile and truly revolutionary.
Armed drones would be revolutionary, but it would not really be until the advent of cruise missiles that they'd become effective. With advances in targeting, they're now a massive dangerous weapon which has been one of the things which has allowed Ukraine to disproportionately take on Russia in the ongoing Russo Ukrainian War.
Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 13, 1924. Macready jumps into the dark.
Friday, June 13, 1924. Macready jumps into the dark.
Lt. John A Macready, already famous for this;
The first flight featured Army Air Corps pilot John A. Macready and aircraft engineer Etienne Dormoy who performed the test with a Curtiss JN4 over a field outside of Troy, Ohio. Lead arsenate was sprayed to attack caterpillars.
Macready would complete an Army career prior to World War Two, leaving the service in 1926, but was recalled to serve in the Second World War. He retired from the Army Air Force in 1948. He was a legendary pilot at the time and had many firsts while in the service, including being the first Air Corps pilot to parachute from a stricken aircraft at night.
made his aforementioned night jump.
He landed in a tree, which saved his life.
Which, in an odd way, brings up this item:
Mosquito Control Notification: Aerial Granular Larvicide Scheduled for June 13
Laramie, Wyoming – City of Laramie Mosquito Control has scheduled the application of granular larvicide to control larval mosquitoes in rural areas adjacent to the city. The application is scheduled for Thursday, June 13th beginning at daylight. The product is a granular form of Bacillus thuringensis israelensis (Bti) that is designed to penetrate heavy grasses and brushy foliage to reach water sources, especially in maturing hay fields, where larvae are present. The application is targeting both nuisance and vector mosquito larva. The product is environmentally friendly and will not harm fish, amphibians, livestock, or other aquatic invertebrates. If weather conditions are not favorable for the application, it will be postponed until weather conditions allow for the application.
Treatment areas include irrigated acreages along the Big Laramie River southwest of the city, flooded riparian zones in the Big Laramie flood plain southwest and north of the city, and acreages north and west of the city that are irrigated by the North Canal and the Pioneer Canal.
Schedules regarding Mosquito Control, Parks, and Cemetery chemical applications for control of weeds and insect pests are available daily through the Mosquito Control and Integrated Pest Management Hotline at 721-5056. The schedule is updated at approximately 4pm daily. Spraying information is also available on the city website. Look for the daily mosquito and chemical application hotline tab on the home page at www.cityoflaramie.org. For further information contact Hunter Deerman, Mosquito/IPM Supervisor at 721-5258; hdeerman@cityoflaramie.org or Scott Hunter, Parks Manager at 721-5257 SHunter@cityoflaramie.org.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Monday, June 3, 2024
Lex Anteinternet: June 3, 1909. Dreadnoughts and Flyers.
June 3, 1909. Dreadnoughts and Flyers.
The Imperial Russian Navy, down to four ships following the Russo Japanese War, began a program of rebuilding, laying down keels for four dreadnoughts.
The Wright Brothers returned to Ft. Myer, Virginian, with an improved Wright Military Flyer. The prior version had killed Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge.
Last prior edition:
Tuesday, June 1, 1909. Pathfinder Dam completed.
Friday, May 24, 2024
Friday, May 17, 2024
Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 17, 1924. U.S. Flyers reach Paramashiru.
Saturday, May 17, 1924. U.S. Flyers reach Paramashiru.
Notre Dame students clashed with Ku Klux Klan members arriving in South Bend.
Three U.S. Army airplanes flew from Attu to Paramashiru in the Kurils, the longest and most dangerous leg of their transglobal flight.
The route allowed the effort to avoid Soviet airspace. The US had not yet recognized the USSR.
Attu has been discussed here several times before, Paramushir (Russian: Парамушир, Japanese: 幌筵島, Ainu: パラムシㇼ) has not. It is a volcanic island in the northern portion of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. The Kurils have been mentioned on this blog only once previously.
Paramushir derives from Ainu and means “broad island” or “populous island”. Now a Russian possession, it was a Japanese one at the time.