The first war to be filmed was the Battle of Volo in Thessaly, Greece in April 1897. This war between Turkey and Greece was filmed by the British war correspondent and cinematographer, Frederick Villiers (UK), but never publically broadcast. The earliest footage of war that still exists was filmed on12 November 1899 by John Bennett (UK) during England’s campaign at Orange River, South Africa during the Boer War (1899-1902).
Dolby is a noise reduction system designed to eliminate hiss from recorded sound. Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (UK 1971) used Doby noise on all pre-mixes and masters, though the release prints had a conventional optical soundtrack.
The first movie to use computer software to simulate the properties of water was Dreamworks’ Antz (USA, 1998). Prior to this, computer-generated fluid effects were drawn, frame by frame, using graphics programs. Realistic water effects require powerful, physics-based computer simulations – at the timeAntz was released, the only detailed studies of fluid dynamics were being carried out by scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA, researching the flow of particles after a nuclear strike.
Flashmobs are sudden gatherings of people in a public place. Participants gather at a prearranged time and engage in a pointless activity for a brief period before disbanding. The first notable flashmob occurred in May 2003 at a shop in New York, USA, organised by Bill Wasik (USA). Police had been tipped off about the event. The second flashmob, also organised by Wasik, avoided police intervention and was much more successful. This occurred on 3 June 2003 at Macy’s department store, New York, USA.
The UK defence company, BAE, in cooperation with Cranfield University and nine other UK universities, has produced an unmanned aerial vehicle with no conventional control surfaces. The UAV, the DEMON, uses outputs from air jets to control airflow over the wing – based on a concept called fluidic flight control – manipulating lift and drag to control its flight path rather than employing traditional, mechanical elevators and ailerons. The maiden flight took place on 17 September 2010 from an airfield at Walney Island in Cumbria,
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On 7 April 2010, Marcus Scherdel flew the Solar Impulse – the world’s first, manned solar-powered aircraft – for a one and a half hour test flight at Payerne in Switzerland. The aircraft is powered by 12,000 solar cells driving four electric motors. The aim is to construct a version that will enable a flight to be undertaken around the world by solar power. Later in 2010, on 7 July, piloted by André Borschberg, it achieved its first 24-hour flight. The Solar Impulse project is
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The Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II – the first production-representative Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) short take off and vertical landing (STVOL) strike aircraft – made its maiden flight on 11 June 2008 piloted by British Aerospace Systems (BAE) test pilot Graham Tomlinson at the company’s Fort Worth facility. Developed to be the world’s premier strike aircraft through to 2040, three versions are under development: the F-35A a conventional takeoff and landing variant, which has already flown; the F-35B, short-takeoff and vertical-landing variant; and the F-35C,
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The first heavier-than-air flight on the Antarctic continent was made on 16 November 1928 by Sir Hubert Wilkins (Australia) and Carl Ben Eielson (USA) in a Lockheed Vega aircraft.
On 20-21 May 1932 Amelia Earhart of Kansas, USA, became the first woman and second person to make a solo transatlantic flight when she piloted single-engine Lockheed Vega from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Canada, to Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 13 hr 30 min. She then went on to make two unsuccessful attempts to circumnavigate the world. On 2 July 1937, after completing 35,400 km (22,000 miles) of her second attempt, Earhart set off with navigator from Lae, Papua New Guinea, for Howland Island in the Pacific.
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The joint NASA/ESA Ulysses spacecraft was launched from the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. It headed out to Jupiter where it used a gravitational slingshot to send it into a polar orbit around the Sun, from where it has directly observed both poles of the Sun. The spacecraft ceased operations on 30 June 2009.