ARGUS-IS publicity material and BAE Systems' flight tests of ARGUS-IS aboard a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, circa 2009.

📷 web.archive.org/web/20120806...

ARGUS-IS was a daytime system. BAE also developed the ARGUS-IR nighttime counterpart.

www.baesystems.com/en-us/articl...

BAE Systems ARGUS-IS 1.8 Gigapixel Camera YouTube video by World Wide Military Video Archive

The ARGUS Imaging System was contracted by DARPA to BAE Systems.

In this clip from the PBS “Rise of the Drones” documentary, BAE's Dr. John Antoniades discusses ARGUS-IS.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiPS...

"The Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) has four stabilized lenses (telescopes), which together use 368 5-million-pixel cell phone cameras. (b) A mosaic of the 368 individual images is stitched together to form one wide-angle seamless … "

(same source)

🔗 A 2011 article from the Science & Technology Review publication of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory discussing the use of their Persistics technology for real-time exploitation of huge video datasets, like those generated by ARGUS-IS.

str.llnl.gov/sites/str/fi...

Indeed. They also fly some of the coolest birds.

x.com/HRD_AOML_NOA...

x.com/HRD_AOML_NOA...

x.com/HRD_AOML_NOA...

x.com/HRD_AOML_NOA...

x.com/HRD_AOML_NOA...

Perfect thread.

After the test, extremely competitive scientists from Los Alamos laboratory waggishly sent a framed photograph of the partially-destroyed tower to Livermore with a letter asking if the new laboratory would be so kind as to leave its future shot towers intact so that Los Alamos could reuse them.

My Space Review article this week is about NRO and the shuttle in the mid-1970s. NRO was dragged kicking and screaming onto shuttle. Newly-declassified documents from 1976 indicate what the NRO was thinking about doing with the shuttle. One possibility was mounting a covert sensor on every flight.

Esnault-Pelterie REP.2bis

📷📑 www.alamy.com/stock-image-...

Esnault-Pelterie REP.2

"Aéroplane Esnault-Pelterie, 1909 : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Meurisse]

📷1 gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
📷2 gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
📷3 gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

Esnault-Pelterie REP.2

🔗 www.earlyaviators.com/eesnault.htm

📷1 www.meisterdrucke.com/kunstdrucke/...
📷2 www.ebay.ca/itm/37313662...

Esnault-Pelterie REP.2 at Buc, 1907.

📷 www.ebay.co.uk/itm/39610086...

The Esnault-Pelterie R.E.P.1 is preserved at the Conservatoire National de Arts et Métiers (CNAM, National Conservatory for Arts and Sciences)."

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Es...

"Esnault Pelterie [aviateur], 22 9bre 07 : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol] "

📷📑 gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

"[Robert Esnault-Pelterie et Wilbur Wright / caricature de Yves Marevéry] " 1909

📷📑 gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

He is credited with inventing/introducing "the ailerons(1903), the "stick" type of control column (1906), the metallic plane (1907), the radial engine with an odd number of cylinders (1907), and the oleo-type landing gear (1907)."

🔗📑 1000aircraftphotos.com/Contribution...

Robert Esnault-Pelterie was a real innovator:

🔗 elpoderdelasgalaxias.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/r...
🔗 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...
🔗 nmspacemuseum.org/inductee/rob...
🔗 postcardhistory.net/2023/10/the-...

📷 gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

🧵 Esnault-Pelterie REP.1 (first flight in 1907) with lightweight seven-cylinder radial engine—both by Robert Esnault-Pelterie.

Innovations included: internally braced wings, welded-steel-tubing-constructed enclosed airframe, stick and rudder flight control.

📷 gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

This satellite mockup has been sitting behind a shed at a central California aviation museum for many years. But the museum did not know what it was. We now know that it was the fit-check boilerplate for the top secret FARRAH satellites. My article is here: thespacereview.com/article/5181/1

📷 nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/eb...

"Photo 1: "Command post for all NORAD operations, including the Command's surveillance and warning sensors around the globe." Caption from U.S. Information Agency photo. […] Source: National Archives […] RG 306-PSE, box 79"
🔗📑 nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/eb...

"The Command Post of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Computer generated images are projected on two large display screens. Base: Peterson Air Force Base State: Colorado (CO) Country: United States Of America (USA)"
📷📑 www.alamy.com/the-command-...

William "Bull" Halsey Jr. should be between #30-#31 (absent). #32 Ernest N. Harmon #38 Courtney Hodges #51 Leslie MacDill (of the eponymous base). #80 John H. Van Vliet Jr. #81 Jonathan M. Wainwright

Many attained general officer ranks. Lots of medals too.

He is #9. Omar Bradley is #8 (just left of Brett). #14 Christian Thomas JJ Jr (great-grandson of "Stonewall" Jackson). #29 Ulysses S. Grant III (grandson of Ulysses S. Grant).

"Army War College Class 1933-34"
📷📑 catalog.archives.gov/id/329582614...

An official black and white "before" photograph of two fully-clothed male and two female mannequins seated at a dinner table in front of a window. Plates, glasses, glass dessert cups, and condiment containers are positioned on the table (but no silverware or tablecloth).

An official black and white "after" photograph from the reverse angle of three of the mannequins lying at odd angles on the dinner table or in their chairs. All of the glassware has been shattered and most of the plates are no longer on the table. Debris is visible on the floor.

A newspaper advertisement showing 50 small black and white photographs of fully-clothed male and female mannequins, with brief descriptions below each of what they are wearing. The text reads: "J.C. PENNEY CO. of Las Vegas IS PROUD TO CONTRIBUTE THE ARTICLES OF WEARING APPAREL PICTURED ON THESE MANNEQUINS TO THE A.E.C. FOR USE IN OPERATION ST. PAT ON MARCH 17, 1953. One of the purposes of Operation St. Pat is to determine the effects of an atomic explosion on various fabrics and materials used in today's wearing apparel. On the fifty mannequins pictured below, we have men's, women's, and children's clothing, consisting of all types of fabrics and materials including wools, rayons, nylons, orlons, cottons, denims, crepes, flannels, and many others ... The outcome of this test is unpredictable, but the results of the evaluation may be a powerful factor in deciding fashion trends in the years to come. Hillman R. Lee Manager"

A short, undated (circa spring 1953) newspaper article datelined Coldwater, Michigan, with the headline, "Dummies Used in Atomic Test To Go on Display." "This community will be the first in the U.S. to get a look at a number of "victims" of the recent atomic bomb blast on the Yucca flats in Nevada. Beginning Thursday morning, 44 mannequins—manufacturer [sic] by the L.A. Darling Co. plastic division here—which were used to represent human being [sic] in the bomb test, will be on display in the windows of the J.C. Penney Co. store here. The Penney Company provided the clothing in which the dummies were clad for the blast. The highly-publicized mannequins will "go on tour" following the Coldwater showing, and will be on display in almost every major city in the country. E.C. Matthews, general manager of the Darling firm's plastic division, said today that he had been assured by authorities that there is no longer any risk of radiation emanating from the bomb-battered dummies, but added that he was unable to state just what had been done to eliminate the danger."

The first two images below are before and after photos of a “dinner party” (using mannequins dressed in clothing supplied by J.C. Penney Company) in one of the typical American wood-frame homes built at the proving ground to demonstrate the various effects of an atomic bomb at different distances.