Concerts.

Broadcaster Jonathan Ross opened the European Live 8 concerts with the words: "It's two o'clock in London on July the 2nd 2005. Hyde Park welcomes the world to Live 8."  There were ten concerts held on 2 July 2005, most of them simultaneously. The first to begin was held at the Makuhari Messe in Japan, with Rize being the first of all the Live 8 performers. During the opening of the Philadelphia concert outside the city's Museum of Art, actor Will Smith led the combined audiences of London, Philadelphia, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Barrie in a synchronised finger snap, meant to represent the death of a child every three seconds in Africa.  Bob Geldof hosted the event at Hyde Park in London, England where he also performed "I Don't Like Mondays". Special guests appeared throughout the concerts. Then-Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made speeches at the London show, while former South African President Nelson Mandela addressed the crowd in the Johannesburg venue. Guest presenters, ranging from sports stars to comedians, also introduced acts.  Included in the all-star line-up were Pink Floyd, reunited with former frontman Roger Waters for the first time in over 24 years. With the death of keyboardist Richard Wright in 2008, Live 8 was the final time the band's "classic" lineup performed together. The band dedicated "Wish You Were Here" to their absent former member Syd Barrett, who later died in 2006.  The final event called Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push was held at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland on 6 July 2005. It featured further performances from some of the artists from the other concerts, and was the closest of the eleven to the actual location of the G8 summit.

Tickets.

Although the concerts were free, 66,500 pairs of tickets for the Hyde Park concert were allocated from 13 to 15 June 2005, to winners of a mobile phone text message competition that began on Monday, 6 June 2005. Entry involved sending the answer to a multiple choice question via a text message costing £1.50. Winners were drawn at random from those who correctly answered the question. Over two million messages were sent during the competition, raising £3 million. The first £1.6 million raised was given to the Prince's Trust, which had to cancel its own annual Party in the Park concert in Hyde Park that year to make way for Live 8. According to the Live 8 website, funds raised beyond the £1.6 million "will go to pay for the costs of Live 8, as it is a free event".  Some ticket-winners placed their tickets for sale on internet auction site eBay, and were heavily criticised by the organisers of the event, including Bob Geldof. Initially, eBay defended its decision to allow the auctions to go ahead, stating that there were no laws against the resale of charity concert tickets. The site also offered to make a donation to Live 8 at least equivalent to the fees it would make from the ticket sales. Some people, angered by others seemingly using Live 8 to make money, placed fake bids for millions of pounds for such auctions in an attempt to force the sellers to take them off sale. It was later announced that eBay, under pressure from the British government, the public, as well as Geldof himself, would withdraw all auctions of the tickets.  Similar touting situations arose for the Edinburgh and Canadian shows, and eBay also halted the sales of the tickets.

Performances.

Barrie, Canada.

Deep Purple made an appearance and performed "Highway Star", "Smoke on the Water" and "Hush". DMC (of Run-DMC) performed with Elliot Easton of The Cars, and Joey Kraemer and Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith. The Tragically Hip played a set, just before Neil Young finished off Live 8 in Barrie with "4 Strong Winds", "Rockin' in the Free World" and "O Canada".

Berlin, Germany.

Some of the highlights of the Berlin show included Brian Wilson who played a set with his band, doing "Our Prayer"/"Gee", "God Only Knows", "California Girls", "Good Vibrations", and "Fun Fun Fun", as well as Green Day, having released their political rock opera "American Idiot" the previous year.

Red Square in Moscow, Russia.

Agata Khristy, By-2, Jango, Dolphin, Linda, Moral codex, Red Elvises, Splin, Pet Shop Boys

Separate rally and anti-poverty protest in Edinburgh.

On 2 July, the same day as the Live 8 concerts, a rally and protest march was held in central Edinburgh, the nearest major city to the Gleneagles venue for the G8 conference later that week. This protest was organised by the Make Poverty History coalition as part of a series of events ahead of the G8 conference, and had already been planned before the announcement of Live 8.  An estimated 225,000 people took part, making it the largest ever protest in Scotland and the largest ever anti-poverty protest in the UK.

Notable absences.

In the weeks leading up to Live 8, British newspaper "Daily Mirror" began a petition, garnering support for British rock band Status Quo to play at the event. Originally offered a 6pm slot, the band already had commitments in Ireland and therefore requested an earlier slot. Their request was rejected by the organisers as there were no available slots.  There were speculations by the press that English girl group the Spice Girls would reunite for a Live 8 performance, in what would have been their first appearance as a five-piece since May 1998. At the Live 8 launch in May, Bob Geldof confirmed that organisers were trying to get the group to reform for the event. Ultimately, the Live 8 reunion did not materialise due to a holdout by Spice Girl Mel B. During the Hyde Park concert, British comedian Peter Kay jokingly introduced the Spice Girls while he was introducing The Who.  English rock band Oasis also declined to participate in the concerts as they were performing at the City of Manchester Stadium the same evening and the day after. Noel Gallagher later expressed disapproval that musicians were expected to rally at the convenience of Geldof. Gallagher was also vocally sceptical about the impact of Live 8, citing his belief that rock stars did not have as much influence over world leaders as the Live 8 organisers may believe.  English rock band Radiohead also turned down an offer to play at the event.

Criticism.

Lack of African performers.

The original lineup for the Hyde Park concert faced criticism for having only one ethnic minority artist – Mariah Carey. Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn called the lack of black performers the organisers' "greatest oversight", while Senegalese musician Baaba Maal wrote in "The Independent": "I do feel it's very patronising as an African artist that more of us aren't involved."  Live 8 organisers subsequently added British R&B singer Ms. Dynamite, US rapper Snoop Dogg and Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour to the Hyde Park lineup in response to the criticism. N'Dour was the only major African artist scheduled to perform at any of the five main concerts. A Live 8 spokesman said that a number of black performers had been approached but were not available to participate and that the event would nonetheless feature a "large urban element". Organisers also argued that there were few black British artists who could attract a large global audience, stating that Geldof's intention was to aim for the biggest global stars to ensure media attention and a large television audience. A Live 8 concert in Johannesburg and an "Africa Calling" concert featuring an entirely African lineup at the Eden Project in Cornwall, were organised following the criticisms.

Motives and controversy.

Geldof's motives for organising Live 8 were questioned. TV and radio presenter Andy Kershaw directed criticisms at Geldof and the motives for Live 8, saying: "I am coming, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Live 8 is as much to do with Geldof showing off his ability to push around presidents and prime ministers as with pointing out the potential of Africa. Indeed, Geldof appears not to be interested in Africa's strengths, only in an Africa on its knees." Rashod Ollison of "The Baltimore Sun" echoed Kershaw's criticisms, calling the event a "ravenous orgy of celebrity ego trips". Geldof's approach, of pressuring G8 leaders to improve aid, forgive debt and ease trade restrictions in Africa, was questioned by John O'Shea, chief executive of international aid charity Goal. O'Shea was concerned that "Live 8 overlooked the need to tackle Africa's corrupt regimes and establish a UN peacekeeping army in Darfur, the Congo and northern Uganda."  The organisers were criticised for using Africa to revive the careers of ageing rock stars more than about helping the poor in Africa. The lineup for the Canada Live 8 concert in particular, was criticised for being "out of touch" and filled with "musical has-beens".  For the Edinburgh concert, Geldof called for children to "give up home and school for a week" to join supporters in a march (entitled The Long Walk to Justice) on 6 July, the start of the G8 summit, which drew the ire of teachers and local residents. Furthermore, the Live 8 concert's timing coincided with the long planned Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh.  Damon Albarn suggested that the performers should put pressure on their record labels to pay "some kind of tariff" from the increased record sales that would come from playing at the event, so as to "genuinely show this is an altruistic act and that there is no self-gain in it". Pink Floyd's guitarist David Gilmour announced that he would donate the profits from the increased sales in Pink Floyd's album to charity, stating: "Though the main objective has been to raise consciousness and put pressure on the G8 leaders, I will not profit from the concert. This is money that should be used to save lives."  Criticism was levelled at the Philadelphia Live 8 concert, when it was revealed that while the performers received no monetary compensation for their participation, they were given gift bags containing designer gifts worth about $12,000. The gifts included $2,000 Gibson guitars, $3,500 Hugo Boss suits and $6,000 Bertolucci watches.

Uncensored broadcasts.

Despite the show being broadcast before the watershed in the United Kingdom, there was no attempt at censorship by the "BBC". The network came under fire for its coverage of the Live 8 concerts due to the amount of live swearing by several performers that was broadcast before the watershed. Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Razorlight, Green Day, U2 and Velvet Revolver were also criticised for their use of foul language during their performances. An investigation by the UK media regulator Ofcom ruled that television audiences were subjected to "the most offensive language" and demanded that the "BBC" issue an on-air apology.  In the United States, "ABC" drew criticism from the Parents Television Council when its delayed airing of the Hyde Park concert highlights failed to censor The Who's performance of "Who Are You" which contained the lyric, "Who the fuck are you?". "ABC" responded: "Unfortunately, one inappropriate phrase sung by one performer was initially missed and made it into the East Coast network feed. It was subsequently edited out of the West Coast feed."

Other.

"MTV" and "VH1" were criticised for their coverage of the Live 8 concerts. Media critics and viewers complained that the networks focused too little on the actual musical performances, pointing to the frequent switching between artists and concerts, and cutting to commercials, interviews or "educational segments" while bands were still performing. The VJs also received criticism for frequently talking over the performances. The following weekend, "MTV" and "VH1" re-aired ten commercial-free hours of music performances from the Live 8 concerts in response to the criticism.  The London concert also received criticism when alcohol was outlawed for concertgoers, but made available for the VIPs.

Legacy.

On 2 July 2006, BBC One, CTV and MTV broadcast "Live 8: What a Difference a Day Makes". In the UK, the special was 60 minutes as compared to the US version on MTV running at 90 minutes. The special was aired on MTV at 07:30 Eastern time, giving nearly no chance for viewers to be made aware of the broadcast. Instead of airing the special late at night, MTV aired their normal broadcasting schedule for Sundays, again adding to the criticism of MTV's lack of interest in Live 8.  The Live 8 on AOL worldwide multi-feed webcast by America Online won the first Emmy Award for content delivered via the Internet, cellphones, and iPods ("Broadband award"). Live 8 on AOL was chosen as the winner out of 74 entrants.  In a report issued in June 2006, the G8 have reportedly not lived up to their promises set in 2005. According to DATA, the US, U.K., Italy, and France increased their development-assistance pledges and actual aid to Africa in 2005, but Germany maintained its former level of contribution and Canada decreased aid in 2005. In general, the G8 is moving slowly in the effort to meet its promises.  Some consider Live 8 to be a success, including Bob Geldof himself. However, others including the World Socialist Web Site dismissed Live 8 as a "public relations stunt" for G8 leaders and multinational corporations, due to the disparity between the rhetoric of the events and the actual efforts made after the events in reducing poverty. Geldof also believes that public attention was quickly diverted by the London bombings on 7 July 2005, the day after Live 8 Edinburgh which was the final concert in the series.

Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6–8 July 2005. Both events also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK's Make Poverty History campaign and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, ten simultaneous concerts were held on 2 July and one on 6 July. On 7 July, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to poor nations from US$25 billion to US$50 billion by the year 2010. Half of the money was to go to Africa. More than 1,000 musicians performed at the concerts, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.

Live 8 byla série benefičních koncertů zorganizovaných Bobem Geldofem a hudebníkem Midgem Urem, které se uskutečnily 2. července 2005 v Londýně, Paříži, Berlíně, Římě, Philadelphii, Ontariu, Tokiu, Johannesburgu, Moskvě, Cornwallu a 6. července také v Edinburghu, dvacet let po obdobné akci s názvem Live Aid a dva roky před tím, než se opět udála podobná akce, rovněž s podobným názvem Live Earth. Ta se uskutečnila formou 9 koncertů na různých světových kontinentech 7. července 2007.


Origin and development of the meaning.

The term "Mary Sue" comes from the name of a character created by Paula Smith in 1973 for her parody story "A Trekkie's Tale" published in her fanzine "Menagerie" #2. The story starred Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old"), and satirized unrealistic characters in "Star Trek" fan fiction. The complete story reads:  In 1976, "Menagerie"'s editors referred to the original story, writing:  While originally used to describe fan fiction characterization, the term has also been applied to professionally published fiction, one example being the main character of the Star Trek novel "Dreadnought!" (1986) by Diane Carey.  The term "Mary Sue" has gained a connotation of wish-fulfillment and is commonly associated with self-insertion, though the characterization of upstaging the established protagonist remains fundamental. True self-insertion is a literal and generally undisguised representation of the author; most characters described as "Mary Sues" are not, though they are often called "proxies" for the author. The negative connotation comes from this "wish-fulfillment" implication: the "Mary Sue" is judged as a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting.

Criticism.

In chapter four of her book "Enterprising Women", Camille Bacon-Smith states that fear of creating a "Mary Sue" may be restricting and even silencing to some writers. Smith quotes an issue of the "Star Trek" fanzine "Archives" as identifying "Mary Sue" paranoia as one of the sources for the lack of "believable, competent, and identifiable-with female characters." In this article, author Joanna Cantor interviews her sister Edith, also an amateur editor, who says she receives stories with cover letters apologizing for the tale as "a Mary Sue", even when the author admits she does not know what a "Mary Sue" is.  According to Edith Cantor, while Paula Smith's original "Trekkie's Tale" was only ten paragraphs long, "in terms of their impact on those whom they affect, those words [Mary Sue] have got to rank right up there with the Selective Service Act". At ClipperCon 1987 (a "Star Trek" fan convention held yearly in Baltimore, Maryland), Smith interviewed a panel of female authors who say they do not include female characters in their stories at all. She quoted one as saying "Every time I've tried to put a woman in any story I've ever written, everyone immediately says, this is a Mary Sue." Smith also pointed out that "Participants in a panel discussion in January 1990 noted with growing dismay that any female character created within the community is damned with the term Mary Sue."  However, Bacon-Smith notes that fans have argued that in "Star Trek" as originally created, James T. Kirk is himself a "Marty Stu," and that the label seems to be used more indiscriminately on female characters who do not behave in accordance with the dominant culture's images and expectations for females as opposed to males. Author Ann C. Crispin is quoted as saying: "The term 'Mary Sue' constitutes a put-down, implying that the character so summarily dismissed is "not" a true character, no matter how well drawn, what sex, species, or degree of individuality."

Variations.

"Marty Stu", "Gary Sue", or "Larry Stu" are alternative names given to this trope, when the same wish-fulfillment aspect is applied to male characters. The "" character Wesley Crusher was described, in hostile terms, as a "Gary Sue" by the feminist popular culture magazine "Bitch". There is speculation amongst fans and academics, mainly pejorative, that Wesley was a self-insertion character for Gene Roddenberry, Roddenberry's middle name being Wesley.  Further variant names have been suggested based on the specific personality of a Mary Sue, such as "Einstein Sue" (an implausibly intelligent character), "Mary Tzu" (one with unrealistically sharp tactical acumen), "Jerk Sue" (a short-tempered character who lashes out, yet is still loved by those around them), or "Sympathetic Sue" (a depressed character who is meant to incur the reader's sympathy).

Allusions.

In 2004, David Orr, in a review of online fan fiction websites FanFiction.net and Godawful Fan Fiction for "The New York Times Book Review", referred to "Mary Sue" as "a ludicrously empowered author proxy". The "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "Superstar" has been analyzed as being a deliberate satire of Mary Sue/Marty Stu type of stories.  A popular subject of debate pertains to whether the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy features a Mary Sue in its protagonist, Rey. Screenwriter Max Landis opined on Twitter in 2015 that the character fits this description, claiming that Rey is excessively gifted at a variety of skills. Conversely, Caroline Framke of "Vox" contended that Rey did not fit the Mary Sue profile, stating that "Any additional skills Rey has—mechanical work, hand-to-hand combat, climbing, etc—are explained when we first meet her... If she hadn't picked up those skills, she'd probably be dead".  Other writers, such as Tasha Robinson of "The Verge", have defended the idea of Rey being a Mary Sue, stating that "for women who've felt underrepresented through decades where most of the ladies onscreen were victims, tokens, rewards, or shrews, it's natural to feel a sugar rush of fulfillment over [strong] characters like Katniss Everdeen and Imperator Furiosa".

A Mary Sue is a generic name for any fictional character who is so competent or perfect that this appears absurd, even in the context of the fictional setting. Mary Sues are often an author's self-insertion or wish fulfillment. They may excel at tasks that should not be possible for them, or they may upstage the protagonist of a fictional setting, such as by saving them. They may disregard previously established aspects of the fiction such as characterization and natural laws. Mary Sue is a type of stock character.

Mary Sue je termín používaný pro fiktivní postavy, které jsou celkově "nesympatické, idealizované a obecně nemají přespříliš zajímavý charakter". Termín je používán především v kontextu s fanfikcí, kde je tato postava originální. Autorům takovýchto povídek se pak hlavně v anglickém fandomu říká "suethoři". Termín Mary Sue může být používán pro postavy obou pohlaví, ale v případě mužské postavy se také používá označení Gary Stu, Murray Stue nebo Marty Stu. Řídce se používá též pohlavně neutrální termín Airy Ooh.


Construction.

Accordions have many configurations and types. What may be easy to do with one type of accordion could be technically challenging or impossible with another, and proficiency with one layout may not translate to another.  The most obvious difference between accordions is their right-hand manuals. Piano accordions use a piano-style musical keyboard, while button accordions use a buttonboard. Button accordions are furthermore differentiated by their usage of a chromatic or diatonic buttonboard for the right-hand manual.  Accordions may be either bisonoric, producing different pitches depending on the direction of bellows movement, or unisonoric, producing the same pitch in both directions. Piano accordions are unisonoric. Chromatic button accordions also tend to be unisonoric, while diatonic button accordions tend to be bisonoric, though notable exceptions exist.  Accordion size is not standardized, and may vary significantly from model to model. Accordions vary not only in their dimensions and weight, but also in number of buttons or keys present in the right- and left-hand manuals. Accordions also vary by their available registers and by their specific tuning and voicing.  Despite these differences, all accordions share a number of common components.

Universal components.

Bellows.

The bellows is the most recognizable part of the instrument, and the primary means of articulation. The production of sound in an accordion is in direct proportion to the motion of the bellows by the player. In a sense, the role of the bellows can be compared to the role of moving a violin's bow on bowed strings. For a more direct analogy, the bellows can be compared to the role of breathing for a singer. The bellows is located between the right- and left-hand manuals, and is made from pleated layers of cloth and cardboard, with added leather and metal. It is used to create pressure and vacuum, driving air across the internal reeds and producing sound by their vibrations, applied pressure increases the volume.  The keyboard touch is not expressive and does not affect dynamics: all expression is effected through the bellows. Bellows effects include:

Body.

The accordion's body consists of two wooden boxes joined together by the bellows. These boxes house reed chambers for the right- and left-hand manuals. Each side has grilles in order to facilitate the transmission of air in and out of the instrument, and to allow the sound to project better. The grille for the right-hand manual is usually larger and is often shaped for decorative purposes. The right-hand manual is normally used for playing the melody and the left-hand manual for playing the accompaniment; however, skilled players can reverse these roles and play melodies with the left hand.  The size and weight of an accordion varies depending on its type, layout and playing range, which can be as small as to have only one or two rows of basses and a single octave on the right-hand manual, to the standard 120-bass accordion and through to large and heavy 160-bass free-bass converter models.

Pallet mechanism.

The accordion is an aerophone. The manual mechanism of the instrument either enables the air flow, or disables it:

Variable components.

The term "accordion" covers a wide range of instruments, with varying components. All instruments have reed ranks of some format, apart from reedless digital accordions. Not all have switches to change registers or ranks, as some have only one treble register and one bass register. The most typical accordion is the piano accordion, which is used for many musical genres. Another type of accordion is the button accordion, which is used in musical traditions including Cajun, Conjunto and Tejano music, Swiss and Austro-German Alpine music, and Argentinian tango music.

Right-hand manual systems.

Different systems exist for the right-hand manual of an accordion, which is normally used for playing the melody (while it can also play chords). Some use a button layout arranged in one way or another, while others use a piano-style keyboard. Each system has different claimed benefits by those who prefer it. They are also used to define one accordion or another as a different "type":

Left-hand manual systems.

Different systems are also in use for the left-hand manual, which is normally used for playing the accompaniment. These almost always use distinct bass buttons and often have buttons with concavities or studs to help the player navigate the layout despite not being able to see the buttons while playing. There are three general categories:

Reed ranks and switches.

Inside the accordion are the reeds that generate the instrument tones. These are organized in different sounding "banks", which can be further combined into "registers" producing differing "timbres". All but the smaller accordions are equipped with switches that control which combination of reed banks operate, organized from high to low registers. Each register stop produces a separate sound timbre, many of which also differ in octaves or in how different octaves are combined. See the accordion reed ranks and switches article for further explanation and audio samples. All but the smallest accordions usually have treble switches. The larger and more expensive accordions often also have bass switches to give options for the reed bank on the bass side.

Classification of chromatic and piano type accordions.

In describing or pricing an accordion, the first factor is size, expressed in number of keys on either side. For a piano type, this could for one example be 37/96, meaning 37 treble keys (three octaves plus one note) on the treble side and 96 bass keys. A second aspect of size is the width of the white keys, which means that even accordions with the same number of keys have keyboards of different lengths, ranging from for a child's accordion to for an adult-sized instrument. After size, the price and weight of an accordion is largely dependent on the number of reed ranks on either side, either on a cassotto or not, and to a lesser degree on the number of combinations available through register switches.  Price is also affected by the use of costly woods, luxury decorations, and features such as a palm switch, grille mute, and so on. Some accordion makers sell the same model in a range of different models, from a less-expensive base model to a more costly luxury model. Typically, the register switches are described as "Reeds: 5 + 3", meaning five reeds on the treble side and three on the bass, and "Registers: 13 + M, 7", meaning 13 register buttons on the treble side plus a special "master" that activates all ranks, like the "tutti" or "full organ" switch on an organ, and seven register switches on the bass side. Another factor affecting the price is the presence of electronics, such as condenser microphones, volume and tone controls, or MIDI sensors and connections.

Straps.

The larger piano and chromatic button accordions are usually heavier than other smaller squeezeboxes, and are equipped with two shoulder straps to make it easier to balance the weight and increase bellows control while sitting, and avoid dropping the instrument while standing. Other accordions, such as the diatonic button accordion, have only a single shoulder strap and a right hand thumb strap. All accordions have a (mostly adjustable) leather strap on the left-hand manual to keep the player's hand in position while drawing the bellows. There are also straps above and below the bellows to keep it securely closed when the instrument is not playing.

Electronic and digital.

In the 2010s, a range of electronic and digital accordions are made. They have an electronic sound module which creates the accordion sound, and most use MIDI systems to encode the keypresses and transmit them to the sound module. A digital accordion can have hundreds of sounds, which can include different types of accordions and even non-accordion sounds, such as pipe organ, piano, or guitar. Sensors are used on the buttons and keys, such as magnetic reed switches. Sensors are also used on the bellows to transmit the pushing and pulling of the bellows to the sound module. Digital accordions may have features not found in acoustic instruments, such as a piano-style sustain pedal, a modulation control for changing keys, and a portamento effect.  As an electronic instrument, these types of accordions are plugged into a PA system or keyboard amplifier to produce sound. Some digital accordions have a small internal speaker and amplifier, so they can be used without a PA system or keyboard amplifier, at least for practicing and small venues like coffeehouses. One benefit of electronic accordions is that they can be practiced with headphones, making them inaudible to other people nearby. On a digital accordion, the volume of the right-hand keyboard and the left-hand buttons can be independently adjusted.  Acoustic-digital hybrid accordions also exist. They are acoustic accordions (with reeds, bellows, and so on), but they also contain sensors, electronics, and MIDI connections, which provides a wider range of sound options. An acoustic-digital hybrid may be manufactured in this form, or it may be an acoustic accordion which has had aftermarket electronics sensors and connections added. Several companies sell aftermarket electronics kits, but they are typically installed by professional accordion technicians, due to the complex and delicate nature of the internal parts of an accordion.

Unusual accordions.

Various hybrid accordions have been created between instruments of different buttonboards and actions. Many remain curiosities – only a few have remained in use:

History.

The accordion's basic form is believed to have been invented in Berlin, in 1822, by Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann, although one instrument has been recently discovered that appears to have been built earlier.  The earliest history of the accordion in Russia is poorly documented. Nevertheless, according to Russian researchers, the earliest known simple accordions were made in Tula, Russia, by and around 1830, after they received an early accordion from Germany. By the late 1840s, the instrument was already very widespread; together the factories of the two masters were producing 10,000 instruments a year. By 1866, over 50,000 instruments were being produced yearly by Tula and neighbouring villages, and by 1874 the yearly production was over 700,000. By the 1860s, Novgorod, Vyatka and Saratov governorates also had significant accordion production. By the 1880s, the list included Oryol, Ryazan, Moscow, Tver, Vologda, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and Simbirsk, and many of these places created their own varieties of the instrument.  The accordion is one of several European inventions of the early 19th century that use free reeds driven by a bellows. An instrument called "accordion" was first patented in 1829 by Cyrill Demian, of Armenian origin, in Vienna. Demian's instrument bore little resemblance to modern instruments. It only had a left hand buttonboard, with the right hand simply operating the bellows. One key feature for which Demian sought the patent was the sounding of an entire chord by depressing one key. His instrument also could sound two different chords with the same key, one for each bellows direction (a "bisonoric" action). At that time in Vienna, mouth harmonicas with "Kanzellen" (chambers) had already been available for many years, along with bigger instruments driven by hand bellows. The diatonic key arrangement was also already in use on mouth-blown instruments. Demian's patent thus covered an accompanying instrument: an accordion played with the left hand, opposite to the way that contemporary chromatic hand harmonicas were played, small and light enough for travelers to take with them and used to accompany singing. The patent also described instruments with both bass and treble sections, although Demian preferred the bass-only instrument owing to its cost and weight advantages.  The accordion was introduced from Germany into Britain in about the year 1828. The instrument was noted in "The Times" in 1831 as one new to British audiences and was not favourably reviewed, but nevertheless it soon became popular. It had also become popular with New Yorkers by the mid-1840s.  After Demian's invention, other accordions appeared, some featuring only the right-handed keyboard for playing melodies. It took English inventor Charles Wheatstone to bring both chords and keyboard together in one squeezebox. His 1844 patent for what he called a "concertina" also featured the ability to easily tune the reeds from the outside with a simple tool. The musician Adolph Müller described a great variety of instruments in his 1833 book "Schule für Accordion". At the time, Vienna and London had a close musical relationship, with musicians often performing in both cities in the same year, so it is possible that Wheatstone was aware of this type of instrument and may have used them to put his key-arrangement ideas into practice.  Jeune's "flutina" resembles Wheatstone's concertina in internal construction and tone colour, but it appears to complement Demian's accordion functionally. The flutina is a one-sided bisonoric melody-only instrument whose keys are operated with the right hand while the bellows is operated with the left. When the two instruments are combined, the result is quite similar to diatonic button accordions still manufactured today.  Further innovations followed and continue to the present. Various buttonboard and keyboard systems have been developed, as well as voicings (the combination of multiple tones at different octaves), with mechanisms to switch between different voices during performance, and different methods of internal construction to improve tone, stability and durability. Modern accordions may incorporate electronics such as condenser microphones and tone and volume controls, so that the accordion can be plugged into a PA system or keyboard amplifier for live shows. Some 2010s-era accordions may incorporate MIDI sensors and circuitry, enabling the accordion to be plugged into a synth module and produce accordion sounds or other synthesized instrument sounds, such as piano or organ.

Use in various music genres.

The accordion has traditionally been used to perform folk or ethnic music, popular music, and transcriptions from the operatic and light-classical music repertoire. Today the instrument is sometimes heard in contemporary pop styles, such as rock and pop-rock, and occasionally even in serious classical music concerts, as well as advertisements.

Use in traditional music.

The accordion's popularity spread rapidly: it has mostly been associated with the common people, and was propagated by Europeans who emigrated around the world. The accordion in both button and piano forms became a favorite of folk musicians and has been integrated into traditional music styles all over the world: see the list of music styles that incorporate the accordion.

Use in jazz.

Early jazz accordionist include Charles Melrose, who recorded "Wailing Blues/Barrel House Stomp" (1930, Voc. 1503) with the Cellar Boys; Buster Moten, who played second piano and accordion in the Bennie Moten orchestra; and Jack Cornell, who did recordings with Irving Mills. Later jazz accordionists from the United States include Steve Bach, Milton DeLugg, Orlando DiGirolamo, Dominic Frontiere, Guy Klucevsek, Yuri Lemeshev, Frank Marocco, John Serry Sr., Lee Tomboulian, and Art Van Damme. French jazz accordionists include Richard Galliano, Bernard Lubat, and Vincent Peirani. Norwegian jazz accordionists include Asmund Bjørken, Stian Carstensen, Gabriel Fliflet, Frode Haltli, and Eivin One Pedersen.  While the accordion's left hand preset chord buttons are limited to triads and seventh chords (for the dominant seventh chord and the diminished seventh chord), jazz accordionists expand the range of chord possibilities by using more than one chord button simultaneously, or by using combinations of a chord button and a bass note other than the typical root of the chord. An example of the former technique is used to play a minor seventh chord. To play an "a minor" seventh chord (with an added ninth), the "a minor" and "e minor" preset buttons are pressed simultaneously, along with an "A" bassnote. An example of the latter technique is used to play the half-diminished chord. To play an "e" half-diminished seventh chord, a "g minor" preset button is pressed along with an "E" bassnote.

Use in popular music.

The accordion appeared in popular music from the 1900s to the 1960s. This half-century is often called the "golden age of the accordion". Five players, Pietro Frosini, the two brothers Count Guido Deiro and Pietro Deiro and Slovenian brothers Vilko Ovsenik and Slavko Avsenik, Charles Magnante were major influences at this time.  Most vaudeville theaters closed during the Great Depression, but accordionists during the 1930s–1950s taught and performed for radio. Included among this group was the concert virtuoso John Serry, Sr. During the 1950s through the 1980s the accordion received significant exposure on television with performances by Myron Floren on "The Lawrence Welk Show". In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accordion declined in popularity due to the rise of rock and roll. The first accordionist to appear and perform at the Newport Jazz Festival was Angelo DiPippo. He can be seen playing his accordion in the motion picture "The Godfather". He also composed and performed with his accordion on part of the soundtrack of Woody Allen's movie "To Rome With Love". He was featured twice on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. Richard Galliano is an internationally known accordionist whose repertoire covers jazz, tango nuevo, latin, and classical. Some popular bands use the instrument to create distinctive sounds. A notable example is Grammy Award-winning parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic, who plays the accordion on many of his musical tracks, particularly his polkas. Yankovic was trained in the accordion as a child.  The accordion has also been used in the rock genre, most notably by John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, featuring more prominently in the band's earlier works. The instrument is still frequently used during live performances, and continues to make appearances in their studio albums. Accordion is also used in the music of the Dropkick Murphys and Gogol Bordello.  Accordionists in heavy metal music make their most extensive appearances in the folk metal subgenre, and are otherwise generally rare. Full-time accordionists in folk metal seem even rarer, but they are still utilized for studio work, as flexible keyboardists are usually more accessible for live performances. The Finnish symphonic folk-metal band Turisas used to have a full-time accordionist, employing classical and polka sensibilities alongside a violinist. One of their accordionists, Netta Skog, is now a member of Ensiferum, another folk-metal band. Another Finnish metal band, Korpiklaani, invokes a type of Finnish polka called humppa, and also has a full-time accordionist. Sarah Kiener, the former hurdy-gurdy player for the Swiss melodic-death-folk metal band Eluveitie, played a Helvetic accordion known as a "zugerörgeli".

Use in classical music.

Although best known as a folk instrument, it has grown in popularity among classical composers. The earliest surviving concert piece is "", written in 1836 by Louise Reisner of Paris. Other composers, including the Russian Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the Italian Umberto Giordano, and the American Charles Ives, wrote works for the diatonic button accordion. The first composer to write specifically for the chromatic accordion was Paul Hindemith. In 1922, the Austrian Alban Berg included an accordion in "Wozzeck", Op. 7. In 1937 the first accordion concerto was composed in Russia. Other notable composers have written for the accordion during the first half of the 20th century. Included among this group was the Italian-American John Serry Sr., whose "Concerto for Free Bass Accordion" was completed in 1964. In addition, the American accordionist Robert Davine composed his "Divertimento for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon and Accordion" as a work for chamber orchestra. American composer William P. Perry featured the accordion in his orchestral suite "Six Title Themes in Search of a Movie" (2008). The experimental composer Howard Skempton began his musical career as an accordionist, and has written numerous solo works for it. In his work "Drang" (1999), British composer John Palmer pushed the expressive possibilities of the accordion/bayan. Luciano Berio wrote "Sequenza XIII" (1995) for accordionist Teodoro Anzellotti. Accordionists like Mogens Ellegaard, Joseph Macerollo, Friedrich Lips, Hugo Noth, Stefan Hussong, Italo Salizzato, Teodoro Anzellotti, Mie Miki, and Geir Draugsvoll, encouraged composers to write new music for the accordion (solo and chamber music) and also started playing baroque music on the free bass accordion.  French composer Henri Dutilleux used an accordion in both his late song cycles "Correspondances" (2003) and "Le Temps l'Horloge" (2009). Russian-born composer Sofia Gubaidulina has composed solos, concertos, and chamber works for accordion. Astor Piazzolla's concert tangos are performed widely. Piazzolla performed on the bandoneon, but his works are performed on either bandoneon or accordion.

Australia.

The earliest mention of the novel accordion instrument in Australian music occurs in the 1830s. The accordion initially competed against cheaper and more convenient reed instruments such as mouth organ, concertina and melodeon. Frank Fracchia was an Australian accordion composer and copies of his works "My dear, can you come out tonight" and "Dancing with you" are preserved in Australian libraries. Other Australian composers who arranged music for accordion include Reginald Stoneham. The popularity of the accordion peaked in the late 1930s and continued until the 1950s. The accordion was particularly favoured by buskers.

Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The accordion is a traditional instrument in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the dominant instrument used in sevdalinka, a traditional genre of folk music from Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also considered a national instrument of the country.

Brazil.

The accordion was brought to Brazil by settlers and immigrants from Europe, especially from Italy and Germany, who mainly settled in the south (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana). The first instrument brought was a "Concertina" (a 120 button chromatic accordion). The instrument was popular in the 1950s, and was common to find several accordions in the same house. There are many different configurations and tunes which were adapted from the cultures that came from Europe.  Accordion is the official symbol instrument of the Rio Grande do Sul state, where was voted by unanimity in the deputy chamber. During the boom of accordions there were around 65 factories in Brazil, where most of them (52) in the south, in Rio Grande do Sul state, with only 7 outside the south. One of the most famous and genuinely Brazilian brands was Acordeões Todeschini from Bento Gonçalves-RS, closed in 1973. The Todeschini accordion is very appreciated today and survives with very few maintainers. The most notable musicians of button accordions are Renato Borghetti, Adelar Bertussi, Albino Manique and Edson Dutra.  Compared to many other countries, the instrument is very popular in mainstream pop music. In some parts of the country, such as the northeast it is the most popular melodic instrument. As opposed to most European folk accordions, a very dry tuning is usually used in Brazil. Outside the south, the accordion (predominantly the piano accordion) is used in almost all styles of Forró (in particular in the subgenres of Xote and Baião) as the principal instrument, Luiz Gonzaga (the "King of the Baião") and Dominguinhos being among the notable musicians in this style from the northeast. In this musical style the typical combination is a trio of accordion, triangle and zabumba (a type of drum).  This style has gained popularity recently, in particular among the student population of the southeast of the country (in the Forró Universitário genre, with important exponents today being Falamansa, and trios such as Trio Dona Zefa, Trio Virgulino and Trio Alvorada). Moreover, the accordion is the principal instrument in Junina music (music of the São João Festival), with Mario Zan having been a very important exponent of this music. It is an important instrument in Sertanejo (and Caipira) music, which originated in the midwest and southeast of Brazil, and subsequently has gained popularity throughout the country.

Colombia.

The accordion is also a traditional instrument in Colombia, commonly associated with the vallenato and cumbia genres. The accordion has been used by tropipop musicians such as Carlos Vives, Andrés Cabas, Fonseca (singer) and Bacilos, as well as rock musicians such as Juanes and pop musicians as Shakira. Vallenato, who emerged in the early twentieth century in a city known as Valledupar, and have come to symbolize the folk music of Colombia.  Every year in April, Colombia holds one of the most important musical festivals in the country: the Vallenato Legend Festival. The festival holds contests for best accordion player. Once every decade, the "King of Kings" accordion competition takes place, where winners of the previous festivals compete for the highest possible award for a vallenato accordion player: the "Pilonera Mayor" prize. This is the world's largest competitive accordion festival.

Mexico.

Norteño heavily relies on the accordion, it is a genre related to polka. Ramón Ayala known in Mexico as the "King of the Accordion" is a norteño musician. Cumbia which features the accordion is also popular with musicians such as Celso Piña creating a more contemporary style. U.S. born Mexican musician Julieta Venegas incorporates the sound of the instrument into rock, pop and folk. She was influenced by her fellow Chicanos Los Lobos who also use the music of the accordion.

North Korea.

According to Barbara Demick in "Nothing to Envy", the accordion is known as "the people's instrument" and all North Korean teachers were expected to learn the accordion.

Manufacturing process.

The most expensive accordions are typically fully hand-made, particularly the reeds; completely hand-made reeds have a better tonal quality than even the best automatically-manufactured ones. Some accordions have been modified by individuals striving to bring a more pure sound out of low-end instruments, such as the ones improved by Yutaka Usui, a Japanese craftsman.  The manufacture of an accordion is only a partly automated process. In a sense, all accordions are handmade, since there is always some hand assembly of the small parts required. The general process involves making the individual parts, assembling the subsections, assembling the entire instrument, and final decorating and packaging.  Famous centres of production are the Italian cities of Stradella and Castelfidardo, with many small and medium size manufacturers especially at the latter. Castelfidardo honours the memory of Paolo Soprani who was one of the first large-scale producers. has built accordions in the French town of Tulle since 1919, and the company is now the last complete-process manufacturer of accordions in France. German companies such as Hohner and Weltmeister made large numbers of accordions, but production diminished by the end of the 20th century. Hohner still manufactures its top-end models in Germany, and "Weltmeister" instruments are still handmade by HARMONA Akkordeon GmbH in Klingenthal.

Accordions (from 19th-century German "Akkordeon", from "Akkord"—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an "accordionist". The concertina and bandoneón are related. The harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family, but are typically larger than an accordion and sit on a surface or the floor.

Akordeon, zvaný též tahací harmonika (slangově také "dršťky" a "zednický klavír"), je dechový, vícehlasý hudební nástroj, u něhož jsou zdrojem zvuku kovové, dřevěné či plastové jazýčky, rozechvívané proudem vzduchu. Ten je získáván pohybem měchu. Pro ovládání nástroje slouží dvě skupiny kláves. Akordeon patří mezi aerofony.


Development.

Mikhail Mil began work on rotary-winged aircraft before 1930, but the Mi-1, his first production helicopter, was begun in 1946, under a designation EG-1. In 1947 Mil became a head of OKB-4 design bureau in Tushino, and works were intensified. A final design was named GM-1 (for "Gyelikopter Mila", Mil's Helicopter).Soviet engineers tried to create a completely original design. So, they made a rotor hub with spaced vertical and horizontal hinges. This design increased the efficiency of helicopter control and was much simpler than that used on American helicopters. The prototype completed first free flight on 20 September 1948 (pilot Mikhail Baikalov). In 1949 it underwent official state trials. Despite crashes of two prototypes, the design was an overall success, and after further work, was ordered for a production, under a new designation Mi-1, for Mil initials. The production was initially limited — the first series of only 15 machines was ordered on 21 February 1950, in factory No.3 in Moscow. Only after presentation to Joseph Stalin in 1951, the authorities decided to increase production. In 1952–1953, 30 Mi-1 were manufactured in Kazan, and from 1954 a mass production started in Orenburg and from 1956 in Rostov (current Rostvertol). The design was a subject of further improvements during production, mostly increasing reliability. Especially a rotor technology was changing. Period between repair increased to 300 hours in Mi-1T (hence a letter T for "trekhsotchasovoi", 300-hour), 600 in Mi-1A, then to 1,000 and 3,000 hours by the end of production. All early variants seated pilot in front and two passengers behind him, in common cabin. The first production variant was Mi-1, quickly replaced by improved Mi-1T, that carried extra operational equipment including full radio and blind-flying instruments, and had more reliable engine AI-26V. The next basic variant was the Mi-1A of 1957, with further increased reliability and provisions for one 160 l external fuel tank.  A new major variant, Mi-1M in 1957 introduced an enlarged cabin and the more powerful AI-26VF engine, which allowed the accommodation of three passengers on a bench behind the pilot. Cabin height increased from 1.22 to 1.26 m and width from 1.01 to 1.2 m. A noticeable difference was horizontal bottom windows line instead of slanted, with bigger rear side windows, and a less pointed fuselage nose. It could also be fitted with two external side capsules for the injured or mail. There were trials of an armed anti-tank variant Mi-1MU carried in 1961, being the first Soviet attack helicopter, but it did not enter production due to having a small payload and the cessation of production of the basic variant.  Well over 1,000 of all variants were built in the USSR, including a proportion of dual-control trainers (with U suffix): Mi-1U, TU, AU, MU, with the instructor seated behind a trainee. 15 were produced in Moscow in 1950, 30 in Kazan in 1952–1953, 597 in Orenburg in 1954–1958 and 370 in Rostov in 1956–1960. In 1956 license-production of the four-seat model began in Poland, at WSK PZL-Świdnik, where 1,594 were built until 1965, under the designation SM-1. Several new versions were developed at Świdnik, including the SM-2 five-seater, with a new fuselage.  Several international records in its class were broken with the Mi-1 or SM-2.

The Mil Mi-1 (USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 32", NATO reporting name "Hare") was a Soviet three- or four-seat light utility helicopter. It was the first Soviet helicopter to enter serial production. It is powered by one 575 hp Ivchenko AI-26V radial. It entered service in 1950 and was first seen on the 1951 Soviet Aviation Day, Tushino and was produced for 16 years. More than 1,000 were built in the USSR and 1,594 in Poland, as SM-1.

Mil Mi-1 (, v kódovém označení NATO Hare, "zajíc", kód v rámci USAF/DOD: Type 32, označení licenční verze PZL SM-1) je lehký jednomotorový víceúčelový užitkový vrtulník s třílistým nosným rotorem a třílistým tlačným vyrovnávacím rotorem. Vrtulníky Mi-1 byly vyvíjeny pod označením GM-1 v Sovětském svazu od roku 1947. Představitelé sovětského letectva vypsali konkurz na stavbu lehkého vrtulníku, který měl sloužit ke spojovacím účelům a měl najít uplatnění i v dalších oblastech civilního a vojenského letectví. První prototyp se vznesl 20. září 1948 a i přesto, že první dva prototypy havarovaly během letových zkoušek, již v roce 1950 započala jejich výroba. V roce 1956 byla podepsána smlouva mezi Sovětským svazem a Polskou lidovou republikou o licenční výrobě vrtulníků Mi-1 v polském závodě WSK PZL Świdnik, které se zde vyráběly pod označením PZL SM-1. Polští konstruktéři postavili na základě stroje Mi-1 nový vrtulník PZL SM-2, který byl schopen transportovat větší množství pasažérů. V Sovětském svazu bylo vyrobeno celkem 1012 kusů, dalších 1594 kusů bylo vyprodukováno v Polsku. V 50. a 60. letech se staly vrtulníky Mi-1 základem mnoha vojenských letek především v zemích Varšavské smlouvy, na Blízkém východě, v Asii a také v některých afrických zemích. Vrtulníky Mi-1 se účastnily také několika válečných konfliktů, například šestidenní války nebo invaze v zátoce Sviní. Jednalo se také o první sériově vyráběný vrtulník v Sovětském svazu.


Plot.

"Neverwhere" is the story of Richard Mayhew and his trials and tribulations in London. At the start of the story, he is a young businessman, recently moved from Scotland and with a normal life ahead. This breaks, however, when he stops to help a mysterious young girl who appears before him, bleeding and weakened, as he walks with his fiancée to dinner to meet her influential boss.  The morning after Richard rescued the girl, named Door, from the streets, she is greatly recovered, and sends him to find the Marquis de Carabas, a man who will be able to help Door escape two infamous and seemingly inhuman assassins, the Messrs Croup and Vandemar. Richard brings the Marquis back to his apartment to meet Door, only to see both of them vanish immediately. Soon after, Richard begins to realise the consequences of his actions. He appears to have become invisible; he loses his job, where no one seems to recognise him, and his apartment is rented out to other people. His fiancée no longer recognizes him.  Determined to set things right, Richard tries to enter the world of London Below in search of Door. He finds a tramp from Below, who is the only person able to see him, and recites the name of the Floating Market as the only place known to him in underworld. The tramp brings Richard to the realm of the Rat-Speakers, who worship and perform tasks for rats. They attempt to assault and rob Richard, but follow orders from the master rat and let him free. He then travels across the mysterious Night's Bridge, whose darkness kills Richard's Rat-Speaker guide, Anaesthesia. Eventually he arrives to the Floating Market, where he meets again with Door, who is holding an audition for bodyguards. Going to the Market, a giant bazaar where people barter for all manner of junk and magical items, Richard realises that London Below is not such a bad place.  The legendary bodyguard and fighter "Hunter" joins their party, and the group, consisting of Door, the Marquis and Hunter, with Richard tagging along, sets out for the Earl's Court. Door and the Marquis have previously travelled to Door's home and discovered a diary entry made by Door's father, which advises her to seek aid from the angel Islington. When the four reach the Earl's Court, on a mysterious underground train which follows its own bizarre schedule, the Marquis is forced to leave. This is due to an old grudge between himself and the Earl. The rest discover that they need to travel through the relic Angelus to reach Islington, and that the Angelus resides in the British Museum.  Door and Richard travel to the Museum, while Hunter, due to a curse which prevents her from entering London Above, remains in the abandoned British Museum underground station. After some searching they find the Angelus, which Door "opens" using her family's Talent, and travel through it to the underground home of the angel. Islington explains that his position as protector of London Below is a punishment for the submersion of Atlantis, which was also under his care, and tells Door that he will help her learn the identity of those who killed her family, for a price. She and her company must retrieve a unique key from the Black Friars and bring it to the angel.  The two return to the Museum and go below to reunite with Hunter. In the meantime, the Marquis seeks out Croup and Vandemar, exchanging a priceless Tang dynasty figurine for information regarding who ordered the murder of Door's family. The true price for this information, however, is his life; Croup and Vandemar capture, torture, and kill him, breaking the one-hour "head start" agreement that was part of their deal with the Marquis.  Door, Richard, and Hunter proceed onward to the dwelling of the Black Friars. There, they are faced with a series of three ordeals; Hunter wins a test of strength, Door wins a test of intellect, and Richard, alone in history, wins a test of character. He is convinced his adventures Below had all been a hallucination, but a trinket from his now-dead friend Anaesthesia re-orients him. As a result, the three succeed in gaining the key. Richard's ordeal greatly changes him, causing him to lose most of his self-doubts; he is now confident enough to interact with other beings of London Below. The three then travel to the Floating Market, where they are unable to find the Marquis, but where Hammersmith, a blacksmith friend of Door's, is able to secretly forge a copy of the key won by Richard. Richard enlists the mysterious Lamia, one of the vampire-like Velvets, as a guide to lead them to the angel's residence.  They travel on London Below's Down Street, toward Islington. Door, Richard, Lamia, and Hunter make their way down the long path of Down Street. Meanwhile, the Marquis's body is found on a Market and revived by Old Bailey, who uses the box containing the Marquis's life. Weakened, the Marquis sets out himself, following Door and company. On Down Street, it is discovered that Lamia was a dangerous choice for a guide, because the price she demands of Richard for her services is higher than he can pay and yet live, but the Marquis appears in time to save him.  Hunter reveals she long ago was a traitor to Door's cause. She gives Door to Croup and Vandemar, in exchange for the magical spear she needs to hunt and slay the great Beast of London. Croup and Vandemar, with Door captive, travel downward, while Richard, the Marquis, and Hunter travel at a slower pace, all toward the great labyrinth through which they need to pass to reach Islington. In this labyrinth the Beast of London dwells. Hunter and Richard battle it, with Richard being the only survivor. Richard and the Marquis rush ahead, to the final confrontation between the parties, in which Islington's true nature is revealed. Islington is revealed to have ordered Croup and Vandemar to execute Door's family as revenge for Door's father's refusal to assist him. He also reveals he had also manipulated her father's diary in order to lure her to him. Islington wishes to use Door and the key to force open the door to Heaven, where he seeks dominion over all the other angels as revenge for his banishment. After Richard is tortured by Croup and Vandemar, Door agrees to open the door, but she uses the copy of the key Richard won. The key does not open the door to Heaven, but instead to somewhere else, as far away as she could imagine, presumably to Hell. Islington, Croup and Vandemar are all sucked through the gateway before Door closes it. Door then uses the Black Friars' real key to allow Richard to travel back to London Above, where he finds himself restored to his normal life as it was before he first met Door.  After returning home, Richard is happy for a time, but he realises that his experiences have changed him, and that his old life and friends mean little to him now. He realises that he is not satisfied with the regular world, and wants to return to London Below but does not know how to do it. He draws the shape of a door with his knife (a dying gift from Hunter), but nothing happens so he despairs of returning and is feeling that he has ruined his life, but in the end the Marquis appears to provide a way back.

Adaptations and sequels.

Gaiman hinted at a novella-length sequel in the commentary section of his short story collection "Fragile Things", published in 2009. The story, titled "How The Marquis Got His Coat Back", was at that time said to be "half-written". The story was published in the 2014 anthology "Rogues", edited by George R. R. Martin.  Gaiman's website FAQ states that a novel-length sequel to the book is a possibility; it will most likely be titled "The Seven Sisters". Aside from an undated statement that "I don't think it's the next book I'll write," there is no indication of when the novel may be completed. In February 2017, whilst promoting his newest book, "Norse Mythology," in London, Gaiman confirmed to applause from the audience that he was three chapters into writing "The Seven Sisters".  A nine-issue comic book limited series began in June 2005, written by Mike Carey (of the Vertigo Comics series "Lucifer)", with art by Glenn Fabry.  An all-star radio adaptation was broadcast 16–22 March 2013, commissioned by BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra. Comments by critics were extremely favourable.  In 2017, HarperAudio, an imprint of HarperCollins, released an audiobook of the novel, narrated by Gaiman.

Neverwhere is the companion novelisation written by English author Neil Gaiman of the television serial "Neverwhere", by Gaiman and Lenny Henry. The plot and characters are exactly the same as in the series, with the exception that the novel form allowed Gaiman to expand and elaborate on certain elements of the story and restore changes made in the televised version from his original plans. Most notable is the appearance of the Floating Market at Harrods (in the novel) rather than under Battersea power station (the TV series). This is because the management of Harrods changed their minds about proposed filming. The novel was originally released by BBC Books in 1996, three episodes into the television series run. It was accompanied by a spoken word CD and cassette release, also by the BBC.

Nikdykde (v originále Neverwhere) je fantasy román britského spisovatele Neila Gaimana. Tato městská fantasy se odehrává v prostředí londýnského podzemí zvaného "Podlondýn". Území na které se lze dostat jenom překročením „prahu“ míst, na nichž se civilizovaní lidé obvykle pohybují. V románu má toto překročení za následek zároveň to, že dotyčný, který je součástí tohoto podzemního světa, přestane být až na výjimky viditelný v našem světě. Příběh spojuje klasické prvky urban fantasy a mýtu a využívá postav ze staré literatury, kterým z části ponechává jejich původní charakter a z části jej mění. Román čtenáře zároveň zavádí do starších dob a orientaci při čtení pomáhá alespoň částečná znalost londýnského prostředí.


Geometry.

Its boundary is composed of 600 tetrahedral cells with 20 meeting at each vertex. Together they form 1200 triangular faces, 720 edges, and 120 vertices. The edges form 72 flat regular decagons. Each vertex of the 600-cell is a vertex of six such decagons.  The mutual distances of the vertices, measured in degrees of arc on the circumscribed hypersphere, only have the values 36° =, 60° =, 72° =, 90° =, 108° =, 120° =, 144° =, and 180° =. Departing from an arbitrary vertex V one has at 36° and 144° the 12 vertices of an icosahedron, at 60° and 120° the 20 vertices of a dodecahedron, at 72° and 108° again the 12 vertices of an icosahedron, at 90° the 30 vertices of an icosidodecahedron, and finally at 180° the antipodal vertex of V. These can be seen in the H3 Coxeter plane projections with overlapping vertices colored. Just like the icosidodecahedron can be partitioned into 6 central decagons (60 edge = 6×10), the 600-cell can be partitioned into 72 decagons (720 edges = 72 × 10).  Its vertex figure is an icosahedron, and its dual polytope is the 120-cell, with which it can form a compound. It has a dihedral angle of.  Each cell touches, in some manner, 56 other cells. One cell contacts each of the four faces; two cells contact each of the six edges, but not a face; and ten cells contact each of the four vertices, but not a face or edge.

As a configuration.

This configuration matrix represents the 600-cell. The rows and columns correspond to vertices, edges, faces, and cells. The diagonal numbers say how many of each element occur in the whole 600-cell. The nondiagonal numbers say how many of the column's element occur in or at the row's element.  formula_1  Here is the configuration expanded with "k"-face elements and "k"-figures. The diagonal element counts are the ratio of the full Coxeter group order, 14400, divided by the order of the subgroup with mirror removal.

Coordinates.

The vertices of a 600-cell centered at the origin of 4-space, with edges of length (where φ = is the golden ratio), can be given as follows: 16 vertices of the form:  and 8 vertices obtained from  by permuting coordinates. The remaining 96 vertices are obtained by taking even permutations of  Note that the first 16 vertices are the vertices of a tesseract, the second eight are the vertices of a 16-cell, and that all 24 vertices together are vertices of a 24-cell. The final 96 vertices are the vertices of a snub 24-cell, which can be found by partitioning each of the 96 edges of another 24-cell (dual to the first) in the golden ratio in a consistent manner.  When interpreted as quaternions, the 120 vertices of the 600-cell form a group under quaternionic multiplication. This group is often called the binary icosahedral group and denoted by "2I" as it is the double cover of the ordinary icosahedral group "I". It occurs twice in the rotational symmetry group "RSG" of the 600-cell as an invariant subgroup, namely as the subgroup "2I" of quaternion left-multiplications and as the subgroup "2I" of quaternion right-multiplications. Each rotational symmetry of the 600-cell is generated by specific elements of "2I" and "2I"; the pair of opposite elements generate the same element of "RSG". The centre of "RSG" consists of the non-rotation "Id" and the central inversion "−Id". We have the isomorphism "RSG ≅ (2I × 2I) / {Id, -Id}". The order of "RSG" equals = 7200.  The binary icosahedral group is isomorphic to SL(2,5).  The full symmetry group of the 600-cell is the Weyl group of H. This is a group of order 14400. It consists of 7200 rotations and 7200 rotation-reflections. The rotations form an invariant subgroup of the full symmetry group. The rotational symmetry group was described by S.L. van Oss (1899); see References.

Visualization.

The symmetries of the 3-D surface of the 600-cell are somewhat difficult to visualize due to both the large number of tetrahedral cells, and the fact that the tetrahedron has no opposing faces or vertices. One can start by realizing the 600-cell is the dual of the 120-cell. One may also notice that the 600-cell also contains the vertices of a dodecahedron, which with some effort can be seen in most of the below perspective projections.  A three-dimensional model of the 600-cell, in the collection of the Institut Henri Poincaré, was photographed in 1934–1935 by Man Ray, and formed part of two of his later "Shakesperean Equation" paintings.

Union of two tori.

The 120-cell can be decomposed into two disjoint tori. Since it is the dual of the 600-cell, this same dual tori structure exists in the 600-cell, although it is somewhat more complex. The 10-cell geodesic path in the 120-cell corresponds to a 10-vertex decagon path in the 600-cell. Start by assembling five tetrahedra around a common edge. This structure looks somewhat like an angular "flying saucer". Stack ten of these, vertex to vertex, "pancake" style. Fill in the annular ring between each "saucer" with 10 tetrahedra forming an icosahedron. You can view this as five, vertex stacked, icosahedral pyramids, with the five extra annular ring gaps also filled in. The surface is the same as that of ten stacked pentagonal antiprisms. You now have a torus consisting of 150 cells, ten edges long, with 100 exposed triangular faces, 150 exposed edges, and 50 exposed vertices. Stack another tetrahedron on each exposed face. This will give you a somewhat bumpy torus of 250 cells with 50 raised vertices, 50 valley vertices, and 100 valley edges. The valleys are 10 edge long closed paths and correspond to other instances of the 10-vertex decagon path mentioned above. These paths spiral around the center core path, but mathematically they are all equivalent. Build a second identical torus of 250 cells that interlinks with the first. This accounts for 500 cells. These two tori mate together with the valley vertices touching the raised vertices, leaving 100 tetrahedral voids that are filled with the remaining 100 tetrahedra that mate at the valley edges. This latter set of 100 tetrahedra are on the exact boundary of the duocylinder and form a clifford torus. They can be "unrolled" into a square 10x10 array. Incidentally this structure forms one tetrahedral layer in the tetrahedral-octahedral honeycomb.  There are exactly 50 "egg crate" recesses and peaks on both sides that mate with the 250 cell tori. In this case into each recess, instead of an octahedron as in the honeycomb, fits a triangular bipyramid composed of two tetrahedra.  The 600-cell can be further partitioned into 20 disjoint intertwining rings of 30 cells and ten edges long each, forming a discrete Hopf fibration. These chains of 30 tetrahedra each form a Boerdijk–Coxeter helix. Five such helices nest and spiral around each of the 10-vertex decagon paths, forming the initial 150 cell torus mentioned above.  This decomposition of the 600-cell has symmetry [[10,2,10]], order 400, the same symmetry as the grand antiprism. The grand antiprism is just the 600-cell with the two above 150-cell tori removed, leaving only the single middle layer of tetrahedra, similar to the belt of an icosahedron with the 5 top and 5 bottom triangles removed (pentagonal antiprism).

Images.

2D projections.

The H3 decagonal projection shows the plane of the van Oss polygon.

3D projections.

Frame synchronized animated comparison of the 600 cell using orthogonal isometric (left) and perspective (right) projections.

Diminished 600-cells.

The snub 24-cell may be obtained from the 600-cell by removing the vertices of an inscribed 24-cell and taking the convex hull of the remaining vertices. This process is a "diminishing" of the 600-cell.  The grand antiprism may be obtained by another diminishing of the 600-cell: removing 20 vertices that lie on two mutually orthogonal rings and taking the convex hull of the remaining vertices.  A bi-24-diminished 600-cell, with all tridiminished icosahedron cells has 48 vertices removed, leaving 72 of 120 vertices of the 600-cell. The dual of a bi-24-diminished 600-cell, is a tri-24-diminished 600-cell, with 48 vertices and 72 hexahedron cells.  There are a total of 314,248,344 diminishings of the cell by non-adjacent vertices. All of these consist of regular tetrahedral and icosahedral cells.

Related complex polygons.

The regular complex polytopes {5}, and {3},, in formula_2 have a real representation as "600-cell" in 4-dimensional space. Both have 120 vertices, and 120 edges. The first has Complex reflection group [5], order 360, and the second has symmetry [3], order 600.

Related polytopes and honeycombs.

The 600-cell is one of 15 regular and uniform polytopes with the same symmetry [3,3,5]: It is similar to three regular 4-polytopes: the 5-cell {3,3,3}, 16-cell {3,3,4} of Euclidean 4-space, and the order-6 tetrahedral honeycomb {3,3,6} of hyperbolic space. All of these have a tetrahedral cells. This 4-polytope is a part of a sequence of 4-polytope and honeycombs with icosahedron vertex figures:

In geometry, the 600-cell is the convex regular 4-polytope (four-dimensional analogue of a Platonic solid) with Schläfli symbol {3,3,5}. It is also called a C, hexacosichoron and hexacosihedroid.

V geometrii je šestisetnadstěn (což je volný překlad anglického "600-cell"), nebo také hexakosichoron platónské těleso ve "čtyřrozměrném prostoru". Bývá považován za čtyřrozměrnou analogii dvacetistěnu.


Development.

Origins.

The B-47 arose from an informal 1943 requirement for a jet-powered reconnaissance bomber, drawn up by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) to prompt manufacturers to start research into jet bombers. Boeing was among several companies to respond to the request; one of its designs, the Model 424, was basically a scaled-down version of the piston-engined B-29 Superfortress equipped with four jet engines. In 1944, this initial concept evolved into a formal request-for-proposal to design a new bomber with a maximum speed of

Swept wings.

In May 1945, the von Kármán mission of the Army Air Forces inspected the secret German aeronautics laboratory near Braunschweig. von Kármán's team included the chief of the technical staff at Boeing, George S. Schairer. He had heard about the controversial swept-wing theory of R. T. Jones at Langley, but seeing German models of swept-wing aircraft and extensive supersonic wind-tunnel data, the concept was decisively confirmed. He wired his home office: "Stop the bomber design" and changed the wing design. Analysis by Boeing engineer Vic Ganzer suggested an optimum sweepback angle of about 35 degrees. Boeing's aeronautical engineers modified the Model 432 with swept wings and tail to produce the "Model 448", which was presented to the USAAF in September 1945. It retained the four TG-180 jet engines in its forward fuselage, with two more TG-180s in the rear fuselage. The flush-mounted air intakes for the rear engines were inadequate while the USAAF considered the engine installation within the fuselage to be a fire

Flight test phase.

The XB-47 prototype flew its first flight on 17 December 1947 (the anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first four flights on 17 December 1903), test pilots Robert Robbins and Scott Osler being at the controls. It lasted just 27 minutes, flying from Boeing Field in Seattle to Moses Lake Airfield in central Washington state. While not experiencing major problems, the emergency hot wire system was needed to raise the flaps and the engine fire warning indicators falsely lit up. Robbins stated that

X-model competitions.

By mid-1948, the Air Force's bomber competition had already been through one iteration, pitting the North American XB-45 against the Convair XB-46. The North American design won that round of the competition; as an interim measure, the USAF decided to put the North American bomber into production on a limited basis as

Production.

The total number

Design.

Overview.

The XB-47, which looked nothing like contemporary bombers, was described by Boyne as a "sleek, beautiful outcome that was highly advanced". The 35-degree swept wings were shoulder-mounted, the inboard turbojet engines mounted in twin pods, at about a third of the span, and the outboard engines singly near the wing tip. This arrangement reduced the bending moment at the wing roots, saving structural weight; the engines' mass also acted as counter-flutter weights.  The wing airfoil was identified by Boeing as the BAC 145, also known as the NACA 64A(.225)12 mod airfoil. Wing flexibility was a concern, flexing as much as at the tip; major effort was expended to ensure that flight control could be maintained as the wing moved up and down; these worries proved to be mostly unfounded. Its maximum speed was limited to to avoid control reversal, where aileron deflections would cause the wings to twist and produce a roll in the

Engines and performance.

During the late 1940s, the bomber was hailed as the fastest of its class in the world. The first prototypes were fitted with General Electric J35 turbojets, the production version of the TG-180, with of thrust. Early jet engines did not develop good thrust at low speeds, so to help a heavily loaded bomber take off, the B-47 had provisions for fitting solid-fuel rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO) rockets, each generating roughly of static thrust. Early aircraft had mounts for nine RATO units built into each side of the rear fuselage, arranged in three rows of three bottles. Most of the space within the upper fuselage was taken up by self-sealing fuel tanks, the wing having been deemed unsuitable for storing fuel.  The performance of the Model 450 was projected to be so good that the bomber would be as fast as fighters then on the drawing board; thus the only defensive armament was to be a tail turret with two.50 in (12.7

Drag chutes.

The aircraft was so aerodynamically clean that rapid descent ("penetration") from high cruise altitude to the landing pattern required dragging the deployed rear landing gear. The relatively high wing loading (weight/wing area) required a high landing speed of. To shorten the landing roll, Air Force test pilot Major Guy Townsend promoted the addition of a German-invented "ribbon" drag chute (thrust reversers had not then been developed). For the same reason, the B-47 was the first mass-produced aircraft to be equipped with an anti-skid braking

Operational history.

Early years.

The USAF Strategic Air Command operated multiple B-47 models (B-47s, EB-47s, RB-47s and YRB-47s) from 1951 through 1965. Upon entry to service, its performance was closer to that of contemporary fighters than SAC's extant B-36 Peacemaker bomber, setting multiple records with ease. It handled well in flight, the controls having a fighter-like light touch. The large bubble canopy enhanced the flying crew's vision and gave a fighter-like feel, but also caused internal temperature variations for the crew. The three-man crew consisted of the commander, copilot, and a navigator/bombardier or a crew chief.  It was not until 1953 that the B-47 became operational. It was sluggish on takeoff and too fast on landings, an unpleasant combination. If landed at the wrong angle, the B-47 would "porpoise", bouncing fore-and-aft; if the pilot did not lift off for another go-around, instability would quickly cause it to skid onto one wing and cartwheel. Because the wings and surfaces were flexible and bent in

Prime years.

An XB-47 was flown in the 1951 Operation Greenhouse nuclear weapons test. This was followed by a B-47B being flown in the 1952 test, Operation Ivy and the 1954 test, Operation Castle. A B-47E was then flown in the 1956 test, Operation Redwing. "Reflex" missions proved the long-endurance (eighteen hours) and long range capability of the B-47 and aircrews. These were "simulated strike missions against the then Soviet enemy".  Three B-47s flew cross country from March Air Force Base to the Philadelphia International Airport as participants in the 1955 Labor Day race. In the 1956 event, three B-47s participated in the G.E. Trophy race for Jet Bombers, flying from Kindley Field, Bermuda, to Oklahoma City. One of these set a course speed record of.  By 1956, the USAF had 28 wings of B-47 bombers and five wings of RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft. The

Later years.

Stress and fatigue incurred in low-altitude operations led to a number of wing failures and crashes, and an extensive refit program was begun in 1958 to strengthen the wing mountings. The program was known as "Milk Bottle", named after the big connecting pins that were replaced in the wing roots.  One of the more notable mishaps involving a B-47 occurred on 5 February 1958 near Savannah, Georgia, in the so-called 1958 Tybee Island B-47 crash. A B-47 based out of Homestead AFB, Florida, was engaged in a simulated combat exercise against an F-86 fighter. As was the practice at the time, the B-47 was carrying a single Mark 15 nuclear bomb, without its core. During this exercise, the two aircraft collided; the F-86 crashed after the pilot ejected, while the B-47 suffered substantial damage, including loss of power in one outboard jet engine. After three unsuccessful landing attempts at Hunter Air Force Base, the bomber pilot had to "safe"

Reconnaissance.

The only B-47s to see anything that resembled combat were the aerial reconnaissance variants. The first overflight of Soviet territory with a B-47B, fitted with special radar and cameras in the bomb bay, occurred on 15 October 1952, overflying Soviet airfields in Northeastern Siberia. RB-47s operated from almost every airfield that gave them access to the USSR and routinely probed Soviet airspace. Occasionally, they would avoid confrontations via speed and evasion; at least five aircraft were fired on and three were shot down. The RB-47s fired back with their tail turrets, although it is uncertain

Surviving aircraft.

Twenty-three surviving airframes exist in museum

Accidents and incidents.

Over the operating history of the B-47, 203 aircraft were lost in crashes, with 464 deaths. This represents approximately 10% of the total number produced.  On 28 February 1955, a crippled B-47 crashed into a trailer park in Lake Charles, Louisiana, killing the aircraft's three crewmen and two people on the ground.  On 10 March 1956, four B-47s left MacDill Air Force Base in Florida for a non-stop flight to Ben Guerir Air Base in Morocco. After descending through clouds to begin their second round of aerial refueling, over the Mediterranean Sea at 14,000 feet, one of the four aircraft, serial number 52-0534, failed to make contact with the tanker; neither the aircraft (which was carrying two nuclear weapon cores) nor its personnel were ever found.  On 28 March 1956, a B-47 exploded near Wichita, Kansas, with an instructor and two student pilots on board. It crashed four miles northeast of the city, killing its crew of three. The office of information services at McConnell Air Force Base said the explosion occurred after takeoff, probably at about 2,000 feet altitude. Wreckage was strewn along the countryside for several miles as the wings sheared off and the fuselage tumbled to earth.  On 27 July 1956, a B-47 of the 307th Bombardment Wing crashed at RAF Lakenheath killing its crew and causing a near radioactive incident when it hit a storage igloo containing three MK-6 nuclear weapons. Although the bombs involved lacked their fissile cores installed, each carried about 8,000 pounds of high explosives for their trigger mechanism. The crash and ensuing fire did not ignite the high explosives and no detonation occurred.  In November 1956, B-47E serial number 51-2421 of the 96th Bombardment Wing, flying from Altus AFB, crashed on a farm near Hobart, Oklahoma, following engine problems. Four crewmen were killed in the incident.  On 9 October 1957, B-47 serial number 51-2177A, of the 447th Bomb Squadron, 321st Bomb Wing at Pinecastle Air Force Base suffered wing failure and crashed northwest of Orlando, Florida, and west of Winter Park, Florida, while conducting a practice demonstration for the annual Strategic Air Command Bombing Navigation and Reconnaissance Competition at Pinecastle AFB. The wing commander, Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, was killed in the crash; Pinecastle AFB was later renamed McCoy AFB in his honor.  On 4 December 1957, a MacDill Air Force Base B-47 exploded in mid-air over Choctawhatchee Bay, Okaloosa County, Florida. Parts were scattered over a wide underwater area that varied in depth from 20 to 30 feet. Assistance from U.S. Navy divers from the Mine Detection Laboratory, Panama City, Florida, the Underwater Demolition Team No. 21 from Little Creek, Va., the 3201st Boat Squadron, APGC, recovered most of the plane. The three crew were killed.  On 5 February 1958, a B-47 was involved in a mid-air collision with an F-86 fighter over Georgia, known as 1958 Tybee Island mid-air collision.  On 26 February 1958, an RB-47E Registration: 52-0720 crashed six miles south of Lancaster, OH on approach to Lockbourne AFB, OH. The aircraft hit the ground at an angle of 50 degrees. It was determined that the aircraft was allowed to get into an unusual attitude and/or high speed, through disorientation, from which there was no recovery. In actuality, a wheel door had broken away and prevented the control surfaces being fully active.  On 13 March 1958, two B-47s failed on the same date in separate incidents when the lower wing skin failed at the same structural location. One exploded over southeast Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing one crewman and raining debris over at least 8 square miles, witnessed by thousands of people on the ground. Two of the three men on a training mission from McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, parachuted to safety. The third was trapped in the nose of the plane and died.  On 10 April 1958, a B-47 out of Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio, exploded in flight behind the KC-97G tanker that was supposed to refuel it ; the KC-97 was unharmed, but the wreckage of the B-47 fell within a half mile of a highway and none of the crew survived.  On 15 April 1958, a B-47 from Walker Air Force Base in New Mexico, serial number 52-0562, crashed on takeoff at Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire; all four crewmen were killed.  On 22 November 1958, a B-47B crashed while taking off from Loring Air Force Base in Maine, killing all four crew members on board. The plane belonged to a unit at McCoy Air Force Base in Orlando, Florida. The plane was described as having reached two-thirds of the way down the runway, when it veered sharply to the right, eventually crashing 400 feet north of the runway. On 25 November 1958, a KC-135 of the 42d Air Refueling Squadron crashed on takeoff roughly in the same area as the B-47 three days before.  On 4 April 1959, a B-47, serial number 52-0320, crashed in the Santa Rita mountains, south of Tucson, Arizona, while attempting to land at the adjacent Davis-Monthan AFB. All three crew were killed. Investigators noted that a faulty altimeter was a contributing factor.  On 24 April 1959, Captain John S. Lappo, operating from Lockbourne AFB flew a B-47 with two crewmen on board under the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan. Following a general court-martial, he was grounded for life.  On 30 December 1959, a B-47B crashed at Torrejón Air Base, Spain, one minute after takeoff. The four crew members were killed in the crash.  On 31 March 1960, a B-47E, serial number 52-1414, of the 384th Bomb Wing (SAC), 545th Bombardment Squadron, Little Rock AFB, exploded inflight over Little Rock, Arkansas. Three of the four crew and two civilians on the ground were killed.  On 4 January 1961, a B-47 based at Pease Air Force Base, serial number 53-4244, crashed on takeoff; all four crewmen were killed.  On 24 February 1961, a B-47 crashed 10 miles southwest of Hurley, Wisconsin, while on a practice bombing mission from the 40th Bomb Wing at Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas. Its four crew were killed. An engine was found 600 yards from the point of impact, indicating it detached prior to the crash.  On 2 May 1961, a B-47 crashed eight miles southwest of Hurley, Wisconsin, only a few miles from the scene of a prior B-47 crash on 24 February 1961. Two of four crew survived. Evidence shows that it was steeply diving when the crash occurred.  In January 1962, a B-47 based at Plattsburgh Air Force Base on a training mission crashed into the side of Wright Peak in the High Peaks in the Adirondacks of New York. All four crew were killed. Wreckage can still be found at the summit, including a landing gear strut and an partial engine. It had veered about 30 miles east due to inclement weather.  On 23 July 1962, a B-47 based at Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, Texas, departed on a training mission through Montana. After crossing into Paradise Valley, it crashed into Emigrant Peak and exploded while turning toward the northwest. All four crew were killed.  On 3 August 1962, a B-47 based at Pease Air Force Base, serial number 52-0526, crashed on takeoff; all three crew were killed.  On 20 February 1963, a B-47 of the 98th Bomb Wing based at Lincoln AFB, Nebraska, crashed in Bashaw Township, approximately 3 miles north of the town of Comfrey, Minnesota. All four crew were killed. It had just completed a low-altitude, simulated bombing run near the town of Heron Lake, Minnesota, when the sixth engine failed, causing it to crash in a field, resulting in a 25-foot deep by 50-foot wide crater.  On 20 August 1963, a QB-47 veered off course on its landing approach at Eglin Air Force Base and crash landed on a road parallel to the runway. It was used for Bomarc Missile Program tests, normally operated from Eglin Air Force Base Auxiliary Field Number Three (Duke Field), approximately north of the main base. Two cars were crushed, killing two occupants and injuring a third.  On 8 December 1964, a B-47 based at Pease Air Force Base, serial number 52-0339, crashed in Newington, New Hampshire, shortly after takeoff; all four crewmen were killed.

The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long-range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft. The primary mission of the B-47 was as a nuclear bomber capable of striking targets within the Soviet Union.

Boeing B-47 Stratojet (tovární označení Model 450) byl americký šestimotorový proudový strategický bombardér středního až dlouhého doletu, určený k letům vysokou podzvukovou rychlostí ve velkých výškách, aby unikl nepřátelským stíhacím letounům. Hlavním úkolem B-47 byl případný jaderný útok na cíle v Sovětském svazu.