The Mercedez Benz

Mercedes Benz History

History of Mercedes Benz Automobiles

Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler grew up in southern Germany about 60 miles apart, not knowing about each other. They are the fathers and the beginning of the Mercedes Benz history. Benz patented the first gasoline powered car, a tri-wheeler in 1886, later the same year Daimler built a motorized stagecoach. Daimler then made a deal with William Steinway of piano fame, to make Daimler Cars in Long island, New york. Production there began in 1904 until a fire in 1907.
Benz built his first four wheel car, the Victoria, in 1893, followed by the production of Velo the following year. That car entered the first auto race between Paris and Rouen, France. 1895 was the first year of Benz trucks. The first Mercedes automobile was marketed in 1901, named after the daughter of Emil Jellenek, a wealthy Austrian auto enthusiast who was providing financing.
The year 1923 saw fifteen million cars world wide, of which half were made by Ford (see Ford history), and 80% were in the United States. In 1924 the two companies Benz and Daimler began an alliance under their separate names. In 1926 the two merged, and Mercedes brand production cars began. The merged company produced about 8,000 cars in 1927, and introduced the first diesel truck. This was a big improvement from the early post-war years. The three-pointed star began in 1909 and was patented in 1928.

The Most Notable Mercedes Benz Automobiles In History

The company introduced the 770 Grosser, it’s largest and most luxurious car ever, in 1930, to a world still reeling from the Wall Street crash. Weighing about 6000 pounds and powered by a 7.6 liter V-8 engine, it was the epitome of wealth. In 1931 it launched another innovation, the model 170, with the first-ever four wheel independent suspension. During the thirties Mercedes continued it’s racing success. In 1937 the 200 mile an hour W125 won seven out of 13 races. The pre-war 170V sedan was basically the same car when post-war production resumed in 1948.
In the mid 50s the company produced the super-fast 300SL sports car with upward opening doors, and race-bred refinements. Today it’s a coveted collector’s item. In the late fifties, it produced the first crumple zone body design, built to withstand a crash while keeping the occupants safe. About that time, the company made an agreement with the Studebaker-Packard Corporation whereby Mercedes cars would be sold through their dealer network. When Studebaker went out of business in the mid sixties, it’s dealers continued selling Mercedes-Benz cars.
In 1963 the limousine-sized 600 model pioneered air suspension. Daimler-Benz merged with the Chrysler Corporation (see Chrysler history) in 1998. The merger was dissolved in 2007 after management disagreements. That year the first Mercedes hybrid models were offered. After world war two, the first factory outside Germany began in Argentina, and the brand is now built in several countries.

The History of GOOGLE

 History

Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 2003

Google began in March 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Ph.D. students at Stanford^[1] working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). The SDLP's goal was “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library." and was funded through the National Science Foundation among other federal agencies.^[2][3][4][5] In search for a dissertation theme, Page considered—among other things—exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web, understanding its link structure as a huge graph.^[6] His supervisor Terry Winograd encouraged him to pick this idea (which Page later recalled as "the best advice I ever got"^[7]) and Page focused on the problem of finding out which web pages link to a given page, considering the number and nature of such backlinks to be valuable information about that page (with the role of citations in academic publishing in mind).^[6] In his research project, nicknamed "BackRub", he was soon joined by Sergey Brin, a fellow Stanford Ph.D. student supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.^[2] Brin was already a close friend, whom Page had first met in the summer of 1995 in a group of potential new students which Brin had volunteered to show around the campus.^[6] Page's web crawler began exploring the web in March 1996, setting out from Page's own Stanford home page as its only starting point.^[6] To convert the backlink data that it gathered into a measure of importance for a given web page, Brin and Page developed the PageRank algorithm.^[6] Analyzing BackRub's output—which, for a given URL, consisted of a list of backlinks ranked by importance—it occurred to them that a search engine based on PageRank would produce better results than existing techniques (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page).^[6][8] A small search engine called Rankdex was already exploring a similar strategy.^[9]
Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. By early 1997, the backrub page described the state as follows:^[10]

Some Rough Statistics (from August 29th, 1996)
Total indexable HTML urls: 75.2306 Million
Total content downloaded: 207.022 gigabytes
...
BackRub is written in Java and Python and runs on several Sun Ultras and Intel Pentiums running Linux. The primary database is kept on an Sun Ultra II with 28GB of disk. Scott Hassan and Alan Steremberg have provided a great deal of very talented implementation help. Sergey Brin has also been very involved and deserves many thanks.
-Larry Page page@cs.stanford.edu

Originally the search engine used the Stanford website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally incorporated their company, Google Inc., on September 4, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California.
Both Brin and Page had been against using advertising pop-ups in a search engine, or an "advertising funded search engines" model, and they wrote a research paper in 1998 on the topic while still students. However, they soon changed their minds and early on allowed simple text ads.^[11]
The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol,"^[12][13] which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros (although Enid Blyton used the word decades earlier in "Google Bun" - Chapter IX, The Magic Faraway Tree). Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb, "google," was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning, "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet."^[14][15]

Google Home Page September 1998

By the end of 1998, Google had an index of about 60 million pages.^[16] The home page was still marked "BETA", but an article in Salon.com already argued that Google's search results were better than those of competitors like Hotbot or Excite.com, and praised it for being more technologically innovative than the overloaded portal sites (like Yahoo!, Excite.com, Lycos, Netscape's Netcenter, AOL.com, Go.com and MSN.com) which at that time, during the growing dot-com bubble, were seen as "the future of the Web", especially by stock market investors.^[16]
In March 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups.^[17] After quickly outgrowing two other sites, the company leased a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway from Silicon Graphics (SGI) in 1999.^[18] The company has remained at this location ever since, and the complex has since become known as the Googleplex (a play on the word googolplex, a number that is equal to 1 followed by a googol of zeros). In 2006, Google bought the property from SGI for $319 million.^[19]
The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design.^[20] In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords.^[1] The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed.^[1] Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and click-throughs, with bidding starting at $.05 per click.^[1] This model of selling keyword advertising was pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed Overture Services, before being acquired by Yahoo! and rebranded as Yahoo! Search Marketing).^[21][22][23] While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.^[1]
Google's declared code of conduct is "Don't be evil", a phrase which they went so far as to include in their prospectus (aka "S-1") for their IPO, noting, "We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served — as shareholders and in all other ways — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains."

Financing and initial public offering

The first funding for Google as a company was secured in August 1998 in the form of a $100,000USD contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, given to a corporation which did not yet exist.
On June 7, 1999, a round of equity funding totalling $25 million was announced^[25]; the major investors being rival venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital.^[24]
In October 2003, while discussing a possible initial public offering of shares (IPO), Microsoft approached the company about a possible partnership or merger. However, no such deal ever materialized. In January 2004, Google announced the hiring of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group to arrange an IPO. The IPO was projected to raise as much as $4 billion.
On April 29, 2004, Google made an S-1 form SEC filing for an IPO to raise as much as $2,718,281,828. This alludes to Google's corporate culture with a touch of mathematical humor as e ≈ 2.718281828. April 29 was also the 120th day of 2004, and according to section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, "a company must file financial and other information with the SEC 120 days after the close of the year in which the company reaches $10 million in assets and/or 500 shareholders, including people with stock options."^[26] Google has stated in its annual filing for 2004 that every one of its 3,021 employees, "except temporary employees and contractors, are also equity holders, with significant collective employee ownership", so Google would have needed to make its financial information public by filing them with the SEC regardless of whether or not they intended to make a public offering. As Google stated in the filing, their, "growth has reduced some of the advantages of private ownership. By law, certain private companies must report as if they were public companies. The deadline imposed by this requirement accelerated our decision." The SEC filing revealed that Google turned a profit every year since 2001 and earned a profit of $105.6 million on revenues of $961.8 million during 2003.
In May 2004, Google officially cut Goldman Sachs from the IPO, leaving Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston as the joint underwriters. They chose the unconventional way of allocating the initial offering through an auction (specifically, a "Dutch auction"), so that "anyone" would be able to participate in the offering. The smallest required account balances at most authorized online brokers that are allowed to participate in an IPO, however, are around $100,000. In the run-up to the IPO the company was forced to slash the price and size of the offering, but the process did not run into any technical difficulties or result in any significant legal challenges. The initial offering of shares was sold for $85 a piece. The public valued it at $100.34 at the close of the first day of trading, which saw 22,351,900 shares change hands.
Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004. A total of 19,605,052 shares were offered at a price of $85 per share.^[27] Of that, 14,142,135 (another mathematical reference as √2 ≈ 1.4142135) were floated by Google and 5,462,917 by selling stockholders. The sale raised US$1.67 billion, and gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion.^[28] The vast majority of Google's 271 million shares remained under Google's control. Many of Google's employees became instant paper millionaires. Yahoo!, a competitor of Google, also benefited from the IPO because it owns 2.7 million shares of Google.^[29]
The company is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol GOOG.

Growth

The first iteration of Google production servers was built with inexpensive hardware and was designed to be very fault-tolerant

In February 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, owner of Blogger, a pioneering and leading web log hosting website. Some analysts considered the acquisition inconsistent with Google's business model. However, the acquisition secured the company's competitive ability to use information gleaned from blog postings to improve the speed and relevance of articles contained in a companion product to the search engine, Google News.
At its peak in early 2004, Google handled upwards of 84.7% of all search requests on the World Wide Web through its website and through its partnerships with other Internet clients like Yahoo!, AOL, and CNN. In February 2004, Yahoo! dropped its partnership with Google, providing an independent search engine of its own. This cost Google some market share, yet Yahoo!'s move highlighted Google's own distinctiveness, and today the verb "to google" has entered a number of languages (first as a slang verb and now as a standard word), meaning, "to perform a web search" (a possible indication of "Google" becoming a genericized trademark).
Analysts speculate that Google's response to its separation from Yahoo! will be to continue to make technical and visual enhancements to personalized searches, using the personal data that is gathering from orkut, Gmail, and Google Product Search to produce unique results based on the user. Frequently, new Google enhancements or products appear in its inventory. Google Labs, the experimental section of Google.com, helps Google maximize its relationships with its users by including them in the beta development, design and testing stages of new products and enhancements of already existing ones.^[30]
After the IPO, Google's stock market capitalization rose greatly and the stock price more than quadrupled. On August 19, 2004 the number of shares outstanding was 172.85 million while the "free float" was 19.60 million (which makes 89% held by insiders). In January 2005 the number of shares outstanding was up 100 million to 273.42 million, 53% of that was held by insiders, which made the float 127.70 million (up 110 million shares from the first trading day). The two founders are said to hold almost 30% of the outstanding shares. The actual voting power of the insiders is much higher, however, as Google has a dual class stock structure in which each Class B share gets ten votes compared to each Class A share getting one. Page says in the prospectus that Google has, "a dual class structure that is biased toward stability and independence and that requires investors to bet on the team, especially Sergey and me." The company has not reported any treasury stock holdings as of the Q3 2004 report.
On June 1, 2005, Google shares gained nearly four percent after Credit Suisse First Boston raised its price target on the stock to $350. On that same day, rumors circulated in the financial community that Google would soon be included in the S&P 500.^[31] When companies are first listed on the S&P 500 they typically experience a bump in share price due to the rapid accumulation of the stock within index funds that track the S&P 500. The rumors, however, were premature and Google was not added to the S&P 500 until 2006. Nevertheless, on June 7, 2005, Google was valued at nearly $52 billion, making it one of the world's biggest media companies by stock market value.
On August 18, 2005 (one year after the initial IPO), Google announced that it would sell 14,159,265 (another mathematical reference as π ≈ 3.14159265) more shares of its stock to raise money. The move would double Google's cash stockpile to $7 billion. Google said it would use the money for "acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets".^[32]
On September 28, 2005, Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1-million square foot R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center, and on December 31, 2005 Time Warner's AOL unit and Google unveiled an expanded partnership—see Partnerships below.
Additionally in 2005, Google formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help in the open source office program OpenOffice.org.^[33]
With Google's increased size comes more competition from large mainstream technology companies. One such example is the rivalry between Microsoft and Google.^[34] Microsoft has been touting its MSN Search engine to counter Google's competitive position. Furthermore, the two companies are increasingly offering overlapping services, such as webmail (Gmail vs. Hotmail), search (both online and local desktop searching), and other applications (for example, Microsoft's Windows Live Local competes with Google Earth). Some have even suggested that in addition to an Internet Explorer replacement Google is designing its own Linux-based operating system called Chrome OS to directly compete with Microsoft Windows. There were also rumors of a Google web browser, fueled much by the fact that Google is the owner of the domain name "gbrowser.com". These were later proven when Google released Google Chrome. This corporate feud is most directly expressed in hiring offers and defections. Many Microsoft employees who worked on Internet Explorer have left to work for Google. This feud boiled over into the courts when Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice-president of Microsoft, quit Microsoft to work for Google. Microsoft sued to stop his move by citing Lee's non-compete contract (he had access to much sensitive information regarding Microsoft's plans in China).
Google and Microsoft reached a settlement out of court on 22 December 2005, the terms of which are confidential.^[35]
Click fraud has also become a growing problem for Google's business strategy. Google's CFO George Reyes said in a December 2004 investor conference that "something has to be done about this really, really quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business model."^[36] Some have suggested that Google is not doing enough to combat click fraud. Jessie Stricchiola, president of Alchemist Media, called Google, "the most stubborn and the least willing to cooperate with advertisers", when it comes to click fraud.
While the company's primary market is in the web content arena, Google has also recently began to experiment with other markets, such as radio and print publications. On January 17, 2006, Google announced that it had purchased the radio advertising company dMarc, which provides an automated system that allows companies to advertise on the radio.^[37] This will allow Google to combine two advertising media—the Internet and radio—with Google's ability to laser-focus on the tastes of consumers. Google has also begun an experiment in selling advertisements from its advertisers in offline newspapers and magazines, with select advertisements in the Chicago Sun-Times.^[38] They have been filling unsold space in the newspaper that would have normally been used for in-house advertisements.
During the third quarter 2005 Google Conference Call, Eric Schmidt said, "We don't do the same thing as everyone else does. And so if you try to predict our product strategy by simply saying well so and so has this and Google will do the same thing, it's almost always the wrong answer. We look at markets as they exist and we assume they are pretty well served by their existing players. We try to see new problems and new markets using the technology that others use and we build."
After months of speculation, Google was added to the Standard & Poor's 500 index (S&P 500) on March 31, 2006.^[39] Google replaced Burlington Resources, a major oil producer based in Houston that had been acquired by ConocoPhillips.^[40]. The day after the announcement Google's share price rose by 7%^[41].
Over the course of the past decade, Google has become quite well known for its corporate culture and innovative, clean products, and has had a major impact on online culture. In July 2006, the verb, "to google", was officially added to both the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary as well as the Oxford English Dictionary, meaning, "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet."^[42][43]

 

Acquisitions

Main article: List of Google acquisitions

Since 2001, Google has acquired several small start-up companies, often consisting of innovative teams and products. One of the earlier companies that Google bought was Pyra Labs. They were the creators of Blogger, a weblog publishing platform, first launched in 1999. This acquisition led to many premium features becoming free. Pyra Labs was originally formed by Evan Williams, yet he left Google in 2004. In early 2006, Google acquired Upstartle, a company responsible for the online collaborative word processor, Writely. The technology in this product was combined with Google Spreadsheets to become Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
On October 9, 2006, Google announced that it would buy the popular online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion.^[46] The brand, YouTube, will continue to exist, and will not merge with Google Video. Meanwhile, Google Video signed an agreement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment and the Warner Music Group, for both companies to deliver music videos to the site.^[47] The deal was finalized by November 13.^[48]
On October 31, 2006, Google announced that it had purchased JotSpot, a company that helped pioneer the market for collaborative, web-based business software to bolster its position in the online document arena. ^[49]
On March 17, 2007, Google announced its acquisition of two more companies. The first is Gapminder's Trendalyzer software, a company that specializes in developing information technology for provision of free statistics in new visual and animated ways^[50] On the same day, Google also announced its acquisition of Adscape Media, a small in-game advertising company based in San Francisco, California.^[51]
Google also acquired PeakStream Technologies.

Partnerships

Google has worked with several corporations, in order to improve production and services. On September 28, 2005,Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1-million square foot R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center. NASA and Google are planning to work together on a variety of areas, including large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry. The new building would also include labs, offices, and housing for Google engineers.^[52] In October 2006, Google formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help the open source office program OpenOffice.org.^[53]
Time Warner's AOL unit and Google unveiled an expanded partnership on December 21, 2005, including an enhanced global advertising partnership and a $1 billion investment by Google for a 5% stake in AOL.^[54] As part of the collaboration, Google plans to work with AOL on video search and offer AOL's premium-video service within Google Video. This did not allow users of Google Video to search for AOL's premium-video services. Display advertising throughout the Google network will also increase.
In August 2003, Google signed a $900 million offer with News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit to provide search and advertising on MySpace and other News Corp. websites including IGN, AmericanIdol.com, Fox.com, and Rotten Tomatoes, although Fox Sports is not included as a deal already exists between News Corp. and MSN.^[55][56]
On 6 December 2006, British Sky Broadcasting released details of a Sky and Google alliance.^[57] This includes a feature where Gmail will link with Sky and host a mail service for Sky, incorporating the email domain "@sky.com".
In 2007 Google, displaced America Online as a key partner and sponsor of the NORAD Tracks Santa program.^[58][59][60]Google Earth was used for the first time to give visitors to the website the impression that they were following Santa Claus' progress in 3-D.^[61]The program also made its presence known on YouTube in 2007 as part of its partnership with Google.^[62]
In January 2009, Google announced a partnership with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, allowing the Pope to have his own channel on YouTube. ^[63]

Top Ten Fighter Planes

 Categories: 800HighTech, Featured Articles, Geek News, Military News
 Tags: Air-Force, Aircraft, Aviation, Combat, Military, Military-News, Military-Technology, War

The World's Greatest Fighter Planes – As Seen On Discovery Channel.

For those who missed out on Discovery Channels “Top Ten Fighter Planes” show last month, we thought we would gather the results and publish them for all to read.
While some may not agree with the order of the list, everyone should agree that each one of these aircraft hailed a groundbreaking point in aviation.

Rank 10 – F117 Stealth Fighter Year 1983

The F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter, a single seat, twin engine aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin, was the first aircraft designed to exploit low-observable stealth technology. Development began in 1978 with a contract awarded to Lockheed’s Advanced Development Project know as the “Skunk Works,” in Burbank, Calif.
The first flight took place in 1981 but the aircraft remain a Military secret until 1988. The US Air Force had a total of 59 Nighthawks before retirement, starting in 2006 through to 2008, slowly removed the aircraft from the skies (read our previous post on the Retirement of The F-117 Nighthawk).
Also known as the Frisbee and the Wobblin’ Goblin, the Nighthawk, only used in night-time missions (hence the name), is unstable in flight but also highly maneuverable and almost invisible to radar.
The aircraft, powered by two low-bypass F404-GE-F1D2 turbofan engines from General Electric, is mainly constructed of aluminum, areas of the engine and exhaust systems consist of titanium.
The surfaces and edge profiles are optimized to reflect hostile radar into narrow beam signals, directed away from the enemy radar detector. All the doors and opening panels on the aircraft have saw-toothed forward and trailing edges to reflect radar.
Almost all the outer surface is coated with a Radar-Absorbent Material (RAM), even the rectangular air intakes on both sides of the fuselage are covered by gratings coated with RAM.
The aircraft does not rely on radar for navigation or targeting, instead the aircraft is equipped with Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) and a Downward-Looking Infrared (DLIR) with laser designator, supplied by Raytheon.
The fly-by-wire is supplied by BAE Systems Aircraft Controls. This system replaces manual control of the single seat aircraft, which is resumed by the pilot for weapon delivery.
The aircraft can carry a range of tactical fighter ordnance including; BLU-109B low-level laser-guided bomb, GBU-10 and GBU-27 laser-guided bomb units, Raytheon AGM-65 Maverick and Raytheon AGM-88 HARM air-to-surface missiles.
The F-117 Nighthawk has been in operational service in many missions including; Operation Just Cause, in Panama; during Operation Desert Storm, in Kosovo; in Afghanistan and during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
F-117’s are now being replaced in the USAF by the more effective F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lighting II.

Specifications

• Engines 2 x General Electric F404-GE-F1D1 Turbofans
• Range approx. 1,110 km
• Weight 13,400 kg
• Top speed approx. 1,040 km/h Dimensions
• Length: 20.08 m, Height: 3.78 m, Wingspan: 13.20 m

Rank 9 – DR 1 Fokker Triplane Year 1917

The most famous airplane of World War One, Fokker Dr.1 Triplane was designed by Reinhold Platz and built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The DR 1 took its first flight on 5th July 1917 and saw widespread service in the spring of 1918.
Many say the aircraft was inspired by Sopwith Triplane however others claim “Reinhold had not even seen the Sopwith before he began designing the DR 1.”
After testing a prototype known as V.3, which suffered from severe wing vibration, Reinhold redesigned the next prototype, the V.4, with hollow struts between the wings. The final design, which came to be known as the DR1, also had improvements to the ailerons and elevators.
The Fokker Dr 1 had one open cockpit, which could hold one pilot and the airframe was made out of steel tubing covered in aircraft doped canvas.
The Dr 1 came equipped with two machine guns which had an intercepting gear that was designed to fire bullets through the propeller arc without hitting the blades.
The DR 1 was a smaller, more maneuverable plane compared to others of World War One; but it was not as fast as most others at that time.
It was in this plane that the most celebrated World War One pilot, Manfred, von Richthofen “The Red Baron”was reported to have made the last of his 80 confirmed victories.
Only 320 Fokker Dr 1’s were made in World War One, so no Fokker Dr 1 is still around today, there are only replicas.

Specifications

• Engine LeRhône type J
• Range 298 km
• Weight 405 kg
• Top speed 185 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 5.77 m, Height: 2.95 m, Wingspan, 7.19 m

Rank 8 – Mitsubishi Zero-Sen (A6M2) Year 1937

The Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero-Sen, a single-seat monoplane fighter conceived as a replacement for the Mitsubishi A5M, was the most famous Japanese plane of World War Two.
Manufactured by Mitsubishi Jukogyo & Nakajima, It was the first shipboard fighter capable of surpassing land-based aircraft was famous for its ability to outmaneuver other aircraft such as the
Brewster F2A Buffaloes, Curtiss P-40s and Grumman F4F Wildcats.
Because of the A6Ms exceptional range and performance, it was used in almost every military engagement in the Pacific, until the end of the war.
The Zero- Sen was armed with two 20-mm type 99 cannon, two 7.7mm type 97 machine guns, and possessed the incredible range of 1930 miles using a centerline drop tank.
The unveiling of the A6M2 came as a complete surprise to US forces even though Claire Chennault, the author of ‘The Role of Defensive Pursuit,’ and leader of the Flying Tigers had warned the USAAF about the dangers of Japanese air power.
Once the effectiveness and maneuverability became clear, Chennault was said to have constantly reminded his pilots, ‘Never try to turn with a Zero. Always get above the enemy and try to hit him with the first pass.’
It was only when US Navy PBY Catalina retrieved an almost perfectly intact A6M2, shot down during Pearl Harbor, were the short comings of the aircraft discovered.
The main failing of the A6M2, 3, and 5 fighter aircraft were the lack of armor for the pilot and its fuel tanks were not self sealing and once breached the aircraft was lost.
The consequent testing and of this unmatchable aircraft lead the American aircraft manufacturer Grumman, to lighten the Grumman F4F Wildcat, and install a larger engine on the Grumman F6F Hellcat.
An up until the introduction of the P-38 Lightning, the F6F Hellcat, and the F4U Corsair the A6M Zero remained the premier fighter aircraft in the Pacific.

Specifications

• Engine 1 Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12
• Range 3,107 km
• Weight 1,680 kg
• Top speed 533.5 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 9.06 m, Height: 3.05 m, Wingspan, 12 m

Rank 7 – Harrier Jump Jet (AV-8B Harrier II) Year 1985

British designed military jet aircraft capable of Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing (V/STOL) via thrust vectoring.
The Harrier family is the only truly successful design of this type from the many that arose in the 1960s.
The Harrier family is made up of four main versions:

• Hawker Siddeley Harrier – 1st generation Harrier, also known as the AV-8A Harrier.
• British Aerospace Sea Harrier – Maritime strike/air defense fighter aircraft.
• Boeing/BAE Systems AV-8B Harrier II – 2nd generation Harrier.
• BAE Systems/Boeing Harrier II – British variant of the 2nd generation Harrier.

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1/GR.3 and the AV-8A were the first operational close-support and reconnaissance attack aircrafts with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing (V/STOL) capabilities.
These were developed directly from the Hawker P.1127 prototype which began after British aircraft manufacturer, Hawker Aircraft, came up with a design for a plane that could meet the current NATO specification for a “Light Tactical Support Fighter”.
The original P.1127 prototype made its first flight in 1960, the RAF ordered a modified version of the P.1127/Kestral in 1966, which became known as the Harrier GR.1.
The Harrier was extensively redeveloped by McDonnell Douglas and British Aerospace, leading to the AV-8B Harrier II and Harrier GR5/GR7/GR9,
The United States Marine Corps makes heavy use of its AV-8B and has developed into a number of sub-variants featuring upgraded systems, software, avionics and structural changes throughout.
While the Harrier is one of the most flexible aircraft ever made, the level of understanding and skill needed to pilot it is considerable.
Thanks to thrust vector and reaction control system, the Harrier is capable of forward flight as well as VTOL and STOL maneuvers; however this requires the skills and understanding associated with helicopters.
The four engine nozzle thrust vectors can be set between zero degrees (horizontal) and 98 degrees (down and slightly forwards), this allows the aircraft to take off and land vertically.
Despite the difficulties in piloting the aircraft, the AV-8B is a capable fighter armed with cannons and several varieties of air-to-air missiles. The AV-8B also doubles as great strike support, able to carry a large amount of stores on its six underwing hardpoints.
The Harrier AV-8B II is used currently by three nations; US, Spain and Italy. Briton’s RAF and Navy, also use its version of the Harrier II.

Specifications

• Engine 1 Rolls-Royce F402-RR-408
• Range 1,000 km
• Weight 10,410 kg
• Top speed 1,000 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 14.11 m, Height: 3.6 m, Wingspan, 9.24 m

Rank 6 – F 86 Sabre Year 1949

The F86 was the final production model of a North American Aviation design for a swept-wing day fighter which could also double as a dive-bomber or escort fighter. The F-86 was built in large numbers by the US and saw extensive action in the Korean War, where it was pitted against the slightly superior MiG-15.
The F-86 started out life as when two prototype XP-86s were contracted in late 1944, but large scale production did not begin until after WWII.
The first XP-86 prototype flew on 1 October 1947, powered by a 3,750-pound thrust G.E. J35 engine. It was re-engined with a more powerful G.E. J47 turbojet the following spring and was re-designated the YP-86A. With a more powerful engine top speed and ceiling of the new fighter increased significantly and the rate of climb almost doubled.
The F-86A was fitted with a T-4E-1 ejection seat, with a manually jettisoned canopy, plus a self-destruct charge to keep it from falling into enemy hands. The F-86A also had a stores pylon under each wing that could each carry a 782 liter (206.5 US gallons) drop tank or a 450 kilogram (1,000 pound) bomb.
Four zero-length stub rocket launchers could be installed under each wing, with each launcher carrying two 12.7 centimeters (5 inches) “High Velocity Air Rockets (HVARs)” for a total of 16 rockets.
Unfortunately, without the drop tanks, the combat radius fell from about 530 kilometers (330 miles) to 80 kilometers (50 miles). In effect, the only armament of the F-86A was its machine guns, and so in the beginning it was not very useful for close support.
The first production model was initially designated the P-86A, but became the legendary F-86A in June 1948. When the new fighter entered US Air Force service in 1949 it gained the name, the “Sabre”.
Its success led to an extended production run of over 7,800 aircraft between 1946 and 1956, in the
United States, Japan and Italy. The upgraded Canadair Sabre added another 1,815 airframes, while the CAC CA-27 Avon Sabre saw a production run of 112. It was by far the most-produced Western jet fighter, with total production of all variants at 9,860 units.

Specifications

• Engine General Electric J47-GE-17B
• Range 870 km
• Weight 9,136 kg
• Top speed 1,107 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 12.27 m, Height: 4.57 m, Wingspan, 11.92 m

Rank 5 – Messerschmidt ME109 Year 1937

Messerschmidt ME109 was the official Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Aviation Ministry, RLM) designation, the design was submitted by the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke company, and was used exclusively in all official German documents dealing with this aircraft family.
The company was renamed Messerschmitt AG in July 1938 when Erhard Milch finally allowed Willy Messerschmitt to acquire the company; from then on, all Messerschmitt aircraft were to carry the “Me” designation except those already assigned a Bf prefix.
Perhaps not the best performer of the war, even its pilots would admit that it was not the safest or most comfortable plane to fly. But its combat record, from beginning to end, was monumental, and it was the weapon of choice for the greatest fighter pilots in history.
A total of 33,984 units were produced up to April 1945. Accounting for 47% of all German aircraft production, as well as 57% of all German fighter types produced.
The ME 109 became the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter force in World War II, although it began to be partially replaced by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 from 1941.
The ME/Bf 109 was the most successful fighter of World War II, shooting down more aircraft than any of its contemporaries. It was flown by the three top-scoring fighter aces of World War II: Erich Hartmann, the top scoring fighter pilot of all time with 352 victories, Gerhard Barkhorn with 301 victories, and Günther Rall with 275 victories. All of them flew with Jagdgeschwader 52, a unit which exclusively flew the Bf 109 and was credited with over 10,000 victories.
Originally conceived as an interceptor, it was later developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as bomber escort, fighter bomber, day-, night- all-weather fighter, bomber destroyer, ground-attack aircraft, and as reconnaissance aircraft.
The ME 109, including such features as an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear, was one of the first true modern fighters of the era.
Although the Bf 109 had weaknesses, including short range and challenging take off and landing characteristics, it stayed competitive with Allied fighter aircraft until the end of the war.

Specifications

• Engine Daimler-Benz DB 605A
• Range 550 km
• Weight 2,600 kg
• Top speed 635 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 8.94 m, Height: 2.59 m, Wingspan, 9.92 m

Rank 4 – F 18 Super Hornet Year 1983

The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is a supersonic carrier-capable fighter/attack aircraft. It is a larger and more advanced derivative of the F/A-18C/D Hornet.
The Super Hornet was first ordered by the U.S. Navy in 1992. The Super Hornet first flew on November 29, 1995 and initial production on the F/A-18E/F began in 1995. Flight testing started in 1996 with the F/A-18E/F’s first carrier landing in 1997. It later entered service with the United States Navy in 1999, replacing the F-14 Tomcat.
Sharing some similarities as previous Hornet variants, the Navy retained the F/A-18 designation to help sell the program to Congress as a low-risk “derivative”; however the Super Hornet is largely a new aircraft.
Design features that were kept included the avionics, ejection seats, radar, armament, mission computer software, and maintenance/operating procedures.
The F/A-18E/F aircraft are 4.2 feet longer than earlier Hornets, have a 25% larger wing area, and carry 33% more internal fuel which will effectively increase mission range by 41% and endurance by 50%.
The Super Hornet also incorporates two additional weapon stations. This allows for increased payload flexibility by mixing and matching air-to-air and/or air-to-ground ordnance. The aircraft can also carry the complete complement of “smart” weapons, including the newest joint weapons such as JDAM and JSOW.
The Super Hornet can carry approximately 17,750 pounds (8,032 kg) of external load on eleven stations. It has an all-weather air-to-air radar and a control system for accurate delivery of conventional or guided weapons.
There are two wing tip stations, four inboard wing stations for fuel tanks or air-to-ground weapons, two nacelle fuselage stations for Sparrows or sensor pods, and one centerline station for fuel or air-to-ground weapons. An internal 20 mm M61A1 Vulcan cannon is mounted in the nose.
Survivability is an important feature of the Super Hornet design. The US Navy took a “balanced approach” to survivability in its design. This means that it does not rely on low-observable technology, such as stealth systems, to the exclusion of other survivability factors. Instead, its design incorporates a combination of stealth, advanced electronic-warfare capabilities, reduced ballistic vulnerability, the use of standoff weapons, and innovative tactics that cumulatively and collectively enhance the safety of the fighter and crew.
The Super Hornet, unlike the previous Hornet, can be equipped with an aerial refueling system (ARS) or “buddy store” for the refueling of other aircraft.
In 2003, the Navy identified a flaw in the Super Hornet’s under wing pylons, which could reduce the aircraft’s service life unless repaired. The problem has been corrected on new airplanes and existing airplanes will be repaired starting in 2009.
The versatility of the F-18 Super Hornet has led the aircraft to be used in such missions including; day/night strikes with precision-guided weapons, anti-air warfare, fighter escort, close air support, suppression of enemy air defense, maritime strikes, reconnaissance, forward air control (Airborne) (FAC(A)), air-to-air refueling as well as leaflet drops with payload delivery unit 5 (PDU-5) containers.

Specifications

• Engines 2 F414-GE-400 turbofans
• Range 2,453 km
• Weight 29,932 kg (max.)
• Top speed 2,145 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 18.5 m, Height: 4.87 m, Wingspan, 13.68 m

Rank 3 – MIG 21 (F-13 / Fishbed C) Year 1959

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (“Fishbed”) is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed and built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union.
The MiG-21F, a continuation of Soviet jet fighters MiG-15, 17 and 19, is a short-range day fighter-interceptor and the first major production version of the popular MiG-21 series. It is one of around 15 versions of this aircraft that have served in the air arms of many nations around the world.
The E-5 prototype of the MiG-21 was first flown in 1955 and made its first public appearance during the Soviet Aviation Day display at Moscow’s Tushino Airport in June 1956.
When the MiG-21 was first introduced, it exhibited several flaws. Its early version air-to-air missiles, the Vympel K-13 (AA-2 ‘Atoll’), were not successful in combat, and its gyro gunsight was easily thrown off in high-speed maneuvers. Once these problems had been revised, the MiG-21 became a formidable fighter aircraft.
Employing a delta configuration, the MiG-21 was the first successful Soviet aircraft combining fighter and interceptor characteristics in a single aircraft. It was a lightweight fighter, achieving Mach 2 with a relatively low-powered afterburning turbojet.
The fighter holds a number of aviation records, including the most produced supersonic jet aircraft in aviation history, the most produced combat aircraft since World War II, and the longest production run of a combat aircraft.
Its Mach 2 capability exceeds the top speed of many later modern fighter types. It has been estimated that more than 10,000 MiG-21s were built. More than 50 countries of the world have flown the MiG-21.

Specifications

• Engine 1 Tumanski R-11F-300 jet
• Range 1,640 km
• Weight 4,600 kg
• Top speed 2,093 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 15.77 m, Height: 7.16 m, Wingspan, 4.80 m

Rank 2 – Supermarine Spitfire Year 1938

The Supermarine Spitfire was a British single-seat fighter aircraft, used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries during the Second World War, and into the 1950s. The extremely adaptable deign of the Spitfire led to 24 marks of aircraft and many sub-variants within the marks.
The Spitfire was originally designed by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at the Supermarine Aviation Works, a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrongs. He continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith became chief designer.
R. J. Mitchell’s 1931 design to meet Air Ministry specification F7/30 for a new and modern fighter capable of 250 mph, the Supermarine Type 224, resulted in an open-cockpit monoplane with bulky gull-wings and a large fixed, spatted undercarriage powered by the 600 horsepower evaporative-cooled Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine.
Based on Reginald Mitchell’s aesthetically pleasing F.7/30 design, the Spitfire was a complex design for its day, with a light alloy monocoque fuselage and a single spar wing, with stressed-skin covering and fabric-covered control surfaces.
The first prototypes employed a DeHavilland two-blade wooden fixed-pitch propeller. After initial testing, this was replaced by a DeHavilland three-blade, two position propeller, and later in 1940, a DeHavilland three-blade constant-speed propeller was substituted.
Production Spitfires had a fixed tail wheel, and triple ejector exhaust manifolds. The PV.12 engine which became the X80 HP Rolls-Royce Merlin II and later the Merlin III engine were installed.
Standard armament in what was known as the “A wing” was eight 0.303-in. Browning machine-guns with 300 rounds of ammunition. The speed of the Spitfire I was marginally higher than that of its principal opponent the Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt Bf 109E, and it was infinitely more maneuverable than the German fighter, although the Bf 109E could out climb and out dive the British fighter, and its shell-firing cannon had a longer range than the Spitfire’s machine-guns.
In an effort to develop the Spitfire further, two principal modifications were made, these included the introduction of a pressurized cabin and the use of an engine suitably rated for higher altitude. These changes were incorporated in the Spitfire Mark IV.
Deliveries of production Spitfire I’s began in June 1938; just over two years after ‘Mutt’ summers flew the prototype at Southampton on the 5th of March, 1936.
In the two years preceding production, Supermarine laid out their Wollaston factory for large-scale production, and organized one of the largest subcontract schemes ever envisioned in Britain.
Its elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a higher top speed than the Hawker Hurricane and many other contemporary designs.
Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire saw service throughout the whole of the Second World War, continuing to serve as a front line fighter for several air forces well into the 1950s.
The Spitfire will always be compared to its main adversary, the Messerschmitt Bf 109: both were among the finest fighters of their day and followed similar design philosophies of marrying a small, streamlined airframe to a powerful liquid-cooled inline engine.

Specifications

• Engine 1 Rolls Royce Merlin 45
• Range 580 km
• Weight 3,300 kg
• Top speed 520 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 10.77 m, Height: 3.90 m, Wingspan, 11.23 m

Rank 1 – P51 Mustang Year 1941

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was a long-range single-seat fighter aircraft that entered service with Allied air forces in the middle years of World War II serving as a bomber escort in raids over Germany.
The Mustang was a fast, well-made, and highly durable aircraft; it was also very economical to produce.
The P-51s first flight took place 26th October 1940. It was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a two-stage two-speed supercharged 12-cylinder Packard-built version of the legendary Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) Browning M2/AN machine guns, a version of the Browning adapted for use in combat aircraft.
The first production contract was awarded by the British for 320 NA-73 fighters, named Mustang I by the British and designated the XP-51 by the US Air Force.
The Mustang I made its debut in combat on 10 May 1942 for the British RAF. With its long range and excellent low-level performance, it was employed for tactical reconnaissance and ground-attack duties over the English Channel.
The original aircraft had limitations when flying over 15,000 ft and did not become a valued fighter until modifications were made.
To enhance altitude capabilities, the British tested the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in the P-51 airframe.
Four airframes were adapted in England to take the Merlin engine. These four planes known as Mustang Xs had deep intakes below the engine for carburetor air. The results of the British tests were passed on to North American.
At the same time on the other side of the Atlantic, North American had undertaken a similar conversion project and was building two Packard Merlin-powered Mustangs.
These improvements increase speed by 51 mph. The newly fitted Packard-built Merlin V-1650-7 was capable of delivering 1,695 hp which provided a speed of 437 mph at 25,000 feet.
The airframes were strengthened to accommodate the extra power, the ventral radiator was deepened, and the carburetor intake was moved from above the nose to below, to accommodate the Merlin updraft induction system.
The P-51 became one of the aviation world’s elite. The total number of 14,819 Mustangs of all types were built for the Army. American Mustangs destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft in Europe to make them the highest scoring US fighter in the theater.
They were used as dive-bombers, bomber escorts, ground-attackers, interceptors, for photo-recon missions, trainers, transports (with a jump-seat), and after the war, high performance racers.

Specifications

• Engine 1 Rolls-Royce/Packard Merlin V-1650-7
• Range 2,000 km
• Weight 3,450 kg
• Top speed 703 km/h
• Dimensions Length: 9.82 m, Height: 4.16 m, Wingspan, 11.28 m

This Post is taken from Hightechedge...I liked it so it is Here.


Tarun Kalla

Secure Your Wi-Fi Network

Hi,

Here are few pointers to Secure Your Wi-Fi Network ,which People usually Ignore and become the victim.
As we all know that During Serial Blast took placed in India the Ken haywood, US Resident became the victim of this situation . His Wifi network was Unprotected and Terrorist used his network to send the Email .
As a result his IP was tracked down and he got in the trouble so i want to advice just take a few steps to protect your connection and it will protect you from Troubles.
Properly secure your WiFi network so that your neighbors do not tap into it?

Login to your Wi-fi Router or Modem Page mainly it will be:
 http://192.168.1.1/
 and Default id & password are likely to be admin.
if it is not such then check your Router's company Website and you will get the one there.
Do change these Default Id and Passwords also from Admin to some other.

Even Properly secure your WiFi network so that your neighbors do not tap into it?
Here’s a few pointers:

1. Disable the broadcasting of the network SSID

Broadcasting the network SSID can make it easier for attackers to guess your password, or for you to become the target of automated sniffing or profiling attacks.

2. Turn on the WPA2 encryption with AES

WPA and WEP are the older, less secure encryption standards. To get the best level of protection, in some cases, the best network speed (that is true with D-Link routers for instance), use WPA2 with AES.

3. Choose a complex password, with both Uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and a few special chars such as “#, ! and _”

A complex password will make bruteforce attacks unlikely to succeed.

4. Change the network password every now and then

This way, even if the password has been compromised, you can limit the amount time when the attacker can use your network. Make sure the password is not predictable, for instance, never use the current month, or, the current year.

5. Reduce the network power to a minimum that still makes it available where you need it in your house

By setting the network to the lowest power setting you make sure that your neighbors from 1Km away do not have any chance of trying to access your resources.

6. Consider purchasing a modern WiFi router, which fully supports WPA2, has a firewall and can have variable broadcast power.

Many old routers have broken WPA implementations or suffer from speed problems when using it. Additionally, they lack many security features. Consider buying a modern, flexible and secure WiFi router. Make sure you update its firmware often.


i hope you will take care of your Wi-Fi Network and Save your Bandwith from loosing out.


Tarun Kalla
aka
S34

FIFA WORLD CUP -2010 (Hottest Event )

Summer are here so is the Hottest Event Of the Earth is on Countdown ya  FIFA world Cup -2010
lets have a little information about it.


The FIFA World Cup, also called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not contested because of World War II.
The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month – this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).
During the 18 tournaments that have been held, seven nations have won the title. Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Italy, the current champions, have won four titles, and Germany are next with three titles. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.
The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, where an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany.^[1] The next World Cup will be held in South Africa, between 11 June and 11 July 2010, and the 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil.

Keep on Rocking n Enjoy Fifa