title: Perun

text: The Bulgarian people believe that the name of city Pernik is thought to have originated from that of Slavic god Perun with the Slavic placename suffix "–nik" (or "–ik") added, and was first mentioned in the 9th century. The medieval town was a key Bulgarian stronghold during Bulgarian tsar Samuil's wars against the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century, when it was governed by the local noble Krakra of Pernik, withstanding Byzantine sieges a number of times.


title: Perun

text: Some places in Central Europe possibly named after Perun are the villages of Parndorf (formerly known as Perun) and Pernitz in the Parndorf Plain, Perná in Moravia, Beroun in Bohemia, and Pernek in Slovakia.


title: Jellystone!

text: Jellystone! is an American animated streaming television comedy series developed by C. H. Greenblatt for HBO Max. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and features reimagined versions of various characters by Hanna-Barbera. It premiered on July 29, 2021.


title: Jellystone!

text: "Jellystone!" is the first series to feature many of Hanna-Barbera's trademark characters (such as Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound) since 1991's "Yo Yogi!", the first production since the closure of the Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears studios, and also the first TV series featuring them without the respective studios' founders William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Joe Ruby, and Ken Spears, who died in 2001, 2006, and 2020 respectively.


title: Jellystone!

text: The first season consisted of 21 episodes with most episodes combined in pairs, but was produced as separate 11-minute episodes, including the Halloween episode "Spell Book". The second season was released on March 17, 2022. On March 2, 2022, it was announced that it was renewed for an additional 40 episodes.


title: Jellystone!

text: The series is a reimagined take on the legendary Hanna-Barbera brand, focusing on a modernized ensemble of its characters as they live, work, and play together with their everyday lives being turned into madcap hilarity where there is always some form of trouble that they work together to solve.


title: Jellystone!

text: All of them have specific roles in the community. Huckleberry Hound is the Mayor of Jellystone, Yogi Bear is a surgeon, Doggie Daddy is a lighthouse keeper who is overprotective towards Augie Doggie, Jabberjaw and Loopy De Loop work in Magilla Gorilla's haberdashery called "Magilla's", Top Cat and the Hoagy's Alley cats continue with their scam activities, El Kabong doubles as a teacher and superhero, Shazzan is a ticket seller at Jellystone Theatre and does various vendor jobs, and The Banana Splits are cartoonish criminals.


title: Jellystone!

text: The episode "Sweet Dreams" claims that Jellystone is nestled between Lake Jellystone and New Bedrock.


title: Jellystone!

text: During the opening sequence, a gag will occur during the citizens' marching that will knock down some buildings and cause everyone to run. The following gags have occurred:


title: Jellystone!

text: In contrast with previous Hanna-Barbera media, some of the established male characters are now female in the series for the sake of gender balance; these include Augie Doggie, Jabberjaw, half of Top Cat's gang, Squiddly Diddly and Loopy De Loop.


title: Jellystone!

text: "Jellystone!" was developed by C. H. Greenblatt, who also created "Chowder" and "Harvey Beaks" for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon respectively. Production on the series according to Greenblatt began in January 2020, with "Unikitty!" director Careen Ingle and former "Harvey Beaks" writer and storyboard artist Hannah Ayoubi. According to Greenblatt's Tumblr, this show has been in early development for at least a year and a half. Greenblatt serves as executive producer alongside "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi" and "The Looney Tunes Show" creator and Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe president Sam Register.


title: Jellystone!

text: Greenblatt grew up on a lot of Hanna-Barbera content during the 1970s, and gained a deep respect for the brand from there, believing that its expansive array of characters is what really made it work. Whilst working on the series, he and his crew decided to have every single character exist in a single town together, changing some of their core traits to make them more likeable while adapting to modern audiences, instead of recreating their past adventures. They also managed to weave in the action-based characters, such as Jonny Quest and Shazzan, whereas many of the obscure ones, ranging from the Biskitts to Yankee Doodle Pigeon, were reduced to cameos.


title: Jellystone!

text: In a July interview with "Animation Magazine" during the series development, Greenblatt stated that they had just outsourced to their animation departments and that the show could debut in 2021.


title: Jellystone!

text: Unlike Greenblatt's other two shows, which utilized traditional hand-drawn animation, "Jellystone!" was animated with Adobe Animate by Snipple Animation Studios and Cheeky Little Media. Ben Gruber, who co-created "Superjail!" for Adult Swim, is the show's story editor.


title: Jellystone!

text: Greenblatt called the series a "love letter" in an interview with Greg Ehrbar on Jerry Beck's animationscoop.com but "not a nostalgia show", though he had filled the episodes with classic cameos. He did not see the series as a replacement for the original shows and characters, but hoped that the entire Hanna-Barbera library might someday become available easily. Greenblatt also compared the overall vibe of the show to season five of "The Simpsons", the point where that series transitioned from a domestic sitcom to a wacky ensemble cast-based show.


title: Jellystone!

text: A series of shorts in where the kids give makeovers to the adults. The first short was released on the Cartoon Network YouTube channel on September 13, 2021, followed by the second on September 18.


title: Jellystone!

text: A commercial in which El Kabong sells a guitar to deal with life's irritations was released on October 9, 2021.


title: Jellystone!

text: A short where Doggie Daddy teaches Augie Doggie how to ride a bike was released on November 27, 2021.


title: Jellystone!

text: A short where Mayor Huckleberry Hound and Mr. Jinks make a batch of Sun-Tea as various crazy events occur around them was released on December 4, 2021.


title: Jellystone!

text: In Canada, the series premiered on October 10 on Teletoon, as well as being shown for American broadcast on Cartoon Network on September 4. The series became available to purchase on Digital storefronts such as iTunes and Vudu the day after. The series premiered in the United Kingdom on Cartoon Network on November 1. In Brazil and Latin America, the series premiered on December 10, on Cartoon Network and HBO Max.


title: Nine-dash line

text: The nine-dash line, at various times also referred to as the ten-dash line and the eleven-dash line (by the ROC), is a set of line segments on various maps that accompanied the claims of the People's Republic of China (PRC, "mainland China") and the Republic of China (ROC, "Taiwan") in the South China Sea. The contested area in the South China Sea includes the Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands, of which Taiping Island, the largest of the islands, is controlled by the ROC, and various other areas including Pratas Island and the Vereker Banks, the Macclesfield Bank, and the Scarborough Shoal. Certain places, known as the "Great Wall of Sand", have undergone land reclamation efforts by various states that claim the area, including the PRC, ROC, and Vietnam. "The People's Daily" of the PRC uses the term 断续线 or 南海断续线 (literally South Sea intermittent line), while the ROC-Taiwanese government uses the term 十一段線 (literally eleven-segment line).


title: Nine-dash line

text: A 1946 map showing a U-shaped eleven-dash line was first published by the Republic of China government on 1 December 1947. Two of the dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin were later removed at the behest of Premier Zhou Enlai of the PRC after a treaty with Vietnam, reducing the total to nine. However, the ROC government still uses the eleven-dash line. In 2013 some were surprised by a tenth dash to the east of Taiwan, but it had been present in PRC maps since as early as 1984.


title: Nine-dash line

text: On 12 July 2016, an arbitral tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) concluded that China's historic-rights claim over the maritime areas (as opposed to land territories and territorial waters) inside the nine-dash line has no lawful effect if it exceeds what it is entitled to under the UNCLOS. One of the arguments was that China had not exercised exclusive control over these waters and resources. It also clarified that it would not "rule on any question of sovereignty over land territory and would not delimit any maritime boundary between the Parties". The ruling was rejected by both the PRC and ROC governments. Other claimants in the South China Sea approved the ruling.


title: Nine-dash line

text: After the Sino-French War in 1885, China signed the Treaty of Tientsin with France, and renounced its suzerainty over Vietnam. On June 26, 1887, the Qing government signed the "Convention Relating to the Delimitation of the Frontier between China and Tonkin", which did not clarify the water border between China and French Indo-China.


title: Nine-dash line

text: Following the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II, the Republic of China (ROC) claimed the entirety of the Paracels, Pratas and Spratly Islands after accepting the Japanese surrender of the islands based on the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations. However, under the 1943 Cairo Declaration and 1945 Potsdam Proclamation, ROC sovereignty over the archipelagos and waters of South China Sea was not stated.


title: Nine-dash line

text: In November 1946, the ROC sent naval ships to take control of these islands after the surrender of Japan. When the Peace Treaty with Japan was being signed at the San Francisco Conference, on 7 September 1951, both China and Vietnam asserted their rights to the islands. Later the Philippine government also laid claim to some islands of the archipelagos.


title: Nine-dash line

text: In December 1947, the Ministry of Interior of the Nationalist government released "Location Map of South Sea Islands" (南海諸島位置圖) showing an eleven-dash line. Scholarly accounts place its publication from 1946 to 1948 and indicate that it originated from an earlier one titled "Map of Chinese Islands in the South China Sea" (中国南海岛屿图) published by the ROC Land and Water Maps Inspection Committee in 1935. Beginning in 1952, the People's Republic of China (PRC) used a revised map with nine dashes, removing the two dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin. The change was interpreted as a concession to the newly independent North Vietnam; the maritime border between PRC and Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin was eventually formalized by treaty in 2000.


title: Nine-dash line

text: After evacuating to Taiwan in 1949, the ROC government continued to claim the eleven-dash line and it remains as the rationale for the Chinese Republic's claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands. President Lee Teng-hui stated that "legally, historically, geographically, or in reality", all of the South China Sea and Spratly islands were ROC territory and under ROC sovereignty, and denounced actions undertaken there by Malaysia and the Philippines. Taiwan and China have the same claims and have cooperated with each other during international talks involving the Spratly islands.


title: Nine-dash line

text: In May 2009, Malaysia and Vietnam submitted claims to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend their respective continental shelves. In objection, the PRC communicated two Notes Verbales to the UN Secretary General stating the following.


title: Nine-dash line

text: Although not visible on the 2009 map, modern Chinese maps since 1984, including the vertically oriented maps published in 2013 and 2014, have also included a tenth dash to the east of Taiwan. Some were nonetheless surprised when the tenth dash appeared in a 2013 map, even though it was not in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, the ROC (Taiwan) has rejected all rival claims to the Paracel islands, repeating its position that all of the Paracel, Spratly, Zhongsha (Macclesfield Bank grouped with Scarborough Shoal) and Pratas Island belong to the ROC along with "their surrounding waters and respective seabed and subsoil." Taiwan views other claims as illegitimate, releasing a statement through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating "there is no doubt that the Republic of China has sovereignty over the archipelagos and waters."


title: Nine-dash line

text: The nine-dash line has been used by China to show the maximum extent of its claim, without indicating how the dashes would be joined and in turn affect the area being claimed. The PRC has not otherwise clarified the legal basis or nature of the nine dashed-line. Analysts from the U.S. Department of State posit three different explanations--that it indicates only the islands within are being claimed, that a maritime area including other features are being claimed, or that a claim is being made as historical waters of China. A claim to only the islands is most consistent with past PRC publications and statements, whereas the other two arguments would put China's claim at greater conflict with the UNCLOS.


title: Nine-dash line

text: According to former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, "China's nine-dash line territorial claim over the entire South China Sea is against international laws, particularly the United Nations Convention of the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS)". Vietnam also rejects the Chinese claim, citing that it is baseless and contrary to UNCLOS. In 2010, at a regional conference in Hanoi, former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that "The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia's maritime commons, and respect for international law in the South China Sea". The United States has also called for unfettered access to the area that China claims as its own, and accused Beijing of adopting an increasingly aggressive stance on the high seas.


title: Nine-dash line

text: Parts of China's nine-dash line overlap Indonesia's exclusive economic zone near the Natuna islands. Indonesia believes China's claim over parts of the Natuna islands has no legal basis. In November 2015, Indonesia's security chief Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said Indonesia could take China before an international court if Beijing's claim to the majority of the South China Sea and part of Indonesian territory is not resolved through dialogue.


title: Nine-dash line

text: As early as 1958, the Chinese government released a document (with no official history context) pertaining to its territorial limits, stating that China's territorial waters cover twelve nautical miles, and announcing that this provision applies to "all the territory of People's Republic of China, including the Chinese mainland and offshore islands, Taiwan and its surrounding islands, the Penghu Islands, the Dongsha Islands, Xisha Islands, Zhongsha Islands, the Nansha Islands and other islands belonging to China".


title: Nine-dash line

text: Some parties have questioned the jurisdiction of the United Nations Convention of the Laws of the Sea on the dispute, arguing that the convention does not support claims based on sovereignty or title, and instead raises the right to continue using the waters for traditional purpose.


title: Nine-dash line

text: While China has never used the nine-dash line as an inviolable border to its sovereignty, this strategy together with the fact that China's government has never officially explained the meaning of the line has led many researchers to try to derive the exact meanings of the Nine-Dash Map in the Chinese strategy in the South China Sea. Some scholars believe that this line cannot be considered as a maritime boundary line because it violates maritime laws, which states that a national boundary line must be a stable and defined one. The nine-dash line is not stable because it has been reduced from eleven to nine dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin as endorsed by Zhou Enlai without any reasons given. It is also not a defined line because it does not have any specific geographic coordinates and does not tell how it can be connected if it was a continuous line.


title: Nine-dash line

text: A study of the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, US Department of State in 2014 said about a possible interpretation that "the placement of the dashes within open ocean space would suggest a maritime boundary or limit".


title: Nine-dash line

text: A 2012 Chinese eighth-grade geography textbook includes a map of China with the nine-dash line and the text "The southernmost point of our country's territory is Zengmu Ansha (James Shoal) in the Nansha Islands." Shan Zhiqiang, the executive chief editor of the Chinese National Geography magazine, wrote in 2013: "The nine-dashed line ... is now deeply engraved in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people." James Shoal is located roughly 133 nm south of Louisa Reef, which was previously claimed by Malaysia and, , also claimed by Brunei, China, and Vietnam.


title: Nine-dash line

text: Wikileaks released a diplomatic cable from September 2008, in which the United States Embassy in Beijing reported that a senior Chinese government maritime law expert said he was unaware of the historical basis for the nine dashes.


title: Nine-dash line

text: According to the "Kyodo News", in March 2010, PRC officials told US officials that they consider the South China Sea a "core interest" on par with Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, but subsequently backed away from that assertion. In July 2010, the Chinese Communist Party-controlled "Global Times" daily tabloid stated that "China will never waive its right to protect its core interest with military means", and a Ministry of Defense spokesman said that "China has indisputable sovereignty of the South Sea and China has sufficient historical and legal backing" to underpin its claims.


title: Nine-dash line

text: At the Conference on Maritime Study organised by the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in June 2011, Su Hao of the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing delivered a speech on China's sovereignty and policy in the South China Sea, using history as the main argument. However, Termsak Chalermpalanupap, assistant director for Program Coordination and External Relations of the ASEAN Secretariat, said: “I don't think that the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) recognizes history as the basis to make sovereignty claims". Peter Dutton of the US Naval War College agreed, saying, "The jurisdiction over waters does not have connection to history. It must observe the UNCLOS." Dutton stressed that using history to explain sovereignty erodes the rules of the UNCLOS. It is understood that China ratified the UNCLOS in 1996.


title: Nine-dash line

text: Maritime researcher Carlyle Thayer, Emeritus Professor of Politics of the University of New South Wales, said that Chinese scholars using historical heritage to explain its claim of sovereignty shows the lack of legal foundation under the international law for the claim. Caitlyn Antrim, executive director, Rule of Law Committee for the Oceans of the US, commented that "The U-shaped line has no ground under the international law because [the] historical basis is very weak". She added "I don't understand what China claims for in that U-shaped line. If they claim sovereignty over islands inside that line, the question is whether they are able to prove their sovereignty over these islands. If China claimed sovereignty over these islands 500 years ago and then they did not perform their sovereignty, their claim of sovereignty becomes very weak. For uninhabited islands, they can only claim territorial seas, not exclusive economic zones (EEZ) from the islands".


title: Nine-dash line

text: In 2022, Vietnam demanded that Taiwan stop conducting its military drills at the Spratly Islands, which is located within the South China Sea.


title: Nine-dash line

text: In January 2013, the Philippines initiated arbitration proceedings against China under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) over a range of issues, including the latter's historic rights claims inside the nine-dash line. A tribunal of arbitrators constituted under Annex VII of UNCLOS appointed the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) as the registry to the proceedings.


title: Nine-dash line

text: On 12 July 2016, the tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines on most of its submissions. While it would not "rule on any question of sovereignty over land territory and would not delimit any maritime boundary between the Parties", it concluded that China had not exercised exclusive control over the waters within the nine-dash line historically and has "no legal basis" to claim "historic rights" to the resources there. It also concluded that China's historic rights claims over the maritime areas (as opposed to land masses and territorial waters) inside the nine-dash line would have no lawful effect beyond what's entitled to under the UNCLOS. China rejected the ruling, calling it "ill-founded"; its paramount leader Xi Jinping said that "China's territorial sovereignty and marine rights in the South China Sea will not be affected by the so-called Philippines South China Sea ruling in any way", but China was still "committed to resolving disputes" with its neighbours. Taiwan, which currently administers Taiping Island, the largest of the Spratly Islands, also rejected the ruling and deployed a coast guard vessel to the island/rock, with a naval frigate mission also scheduled.


title: Nine-dash line

text: The DreamWorks Animation film "Abominable" included a scene with the nine-dash line, which generated controversy in Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia although the film was simply depicting maps as sold in China. Vietnam and the Philippines banned the film, and Malaysia followed suit after the producers refused to cut the scene.


title: Nine-dash line

text: In 2019, an ESPN broadcast used a map that appeared to endorse China's claims to Taiwan and the nine-dash line, causing controversy.


title: Nine-dash line

text: In 2021, Netflix pulled TV series "Pine Gap" from Vietnam, following an order from the country's Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, as a map with the nine-dash line was briefly shown in two episodes of the series. TV series "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" was also pulled from Vietnam, after the nine-dash line appeared briefly on the ninth episode of the series. The country's Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information released a statement that Netflix had angered and hurt the feelings of the entire people of Vietnam.


title: Nine-dash line

text: On 12 March 2022, Vietnam Film Authority banned the movie "Uncharted" because it contained an image of a nine-dash line map considered illegal. By April 27, the Philippines followed suit.


title: George Spahn

text: George Christian Spahn (February 11, 1889 – September 22, 1974) was an American rancher who once owned the Spahn Ranch near Chatsworth, Los Angeles. Spahn rented the ranch to the movie industry to film Westerns, and later allowed Charles Manson and his "Family" of followers to live at the site.


title: George Spahn

text: Spahn grew up in the greater Philadelphia area. His father died in a work accident when he was just two years old. Spahn had, at times, a tense relationship with his stepfather, who often exhibited vicious and violent behavior when he was drunk. Spahn left school after the third grade and started to work as a milkman. When he was 16, Spahn started an apprenticeship with a carpenter, but did not stay in this profession and eventually returned to the milk delivery business. He set up a business in Willow Grove owning five carriages and seven horses. He also employed his stepfather at this point.


title: George Spahn

text: Before he was 30, Spahn acquired a farm of 86 acres in Lansdale, where he kept 36 cows and some horses. He married the widow Martha Virginia Greenholtz, whom he had originally hired as a housekeeper for his farm. The couple had ten children together and also raised a daughter from Greenholtz's first marriage.


title: George Spahn

text: In the early 1930s, during the Great Depression, Spahn's milk business was facing difficulties and he felt somewhat disenchanted with his life in general. This led him to start over in California. He sold his farm and moved his family and favorite horses to Los Angeles. There he gave up on the milk business and turned to raising horses and offering horseback riding to tourists. In the late 1940s, he separated from his wife, and in 1953 bought the movie ranch that now carries his name. There he continued to raise horses and offer horse riding trips. He also expanded the already existing Western film sets on the ranch and rented them out to film and TV productions. However, due to declining demand for Western productions, his business went bankrupt in 1966. Spahn nonetheless continued to live on the ranch, with most of its buildings, in particular the film sets, falling into disrepair.


title: George Spahn

text: Spahn is chiefly remembered for his association with the Manson Family, due to his tolerance of the Manson group's residence on his property. Spahn housed Charles Manson and his followers at the ranch from 1968 on. The 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders by Manson's devotees were allegedly hatched at the Spahn Ranch.


title: George Spahn

text: Manson persuaded Spahn to permit "the Family" to live at his ranch. Manson ordered the women in the group to clean and cook for the nearly blind 80-year-old. The women also acted as seeing eye guides for Spahn. Spahn nicknamed all the Manson girls, including Squeaky, Sadie Mae, and Ouisch. According to Manson Family member Paul Watkins, Mansonite Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme got her nickname because of the sound she made when Spahn ran his hand up her thigh. Family member Charles Watson has written that his own nickname, "Tex", was given to him by Spahn, who recognized his Texas accent.


title: George Spahn

text: Spahn lived for five years after the murders. For the first year he still stayed on the ranch with some of the women of the Manson Family until it was destroyed in a large wildfire in September 1970. He was eventually admitted to the Sherwood Convalescent Hospital in Van Nuys, where he died on September 22, 1974, at the age of 85. He was buried in Eternal Valley Memorial Park in nearby Newhall.


title: George Spahn

text: Spahn himself can be seen as an old man in the 1973 documentary "Manson". In the 1976 TV movie "Helter Skelter", based on prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's book of the same name, Spahn is portrayed by Ray Middleton (1907–1984).


title: George Spahn

text: In the 2018 film "Charlie Says", Spahn is portrayed by John Gowans. In Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", Spahn is portrayed by Bruce Dern. Burt Reynolds was initially cast as Spahn, but died in September 2018, approximately two weeks before shooting was slated to begin.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: Until February 2013, he was a director of, and advisor to, Niwango, best known for its video-sharing service Nico Nico Douga.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: Christopher Poole, the founder of 4chan, formally announced on 21 September 2015 that he had sold the website to Nishimura. After a dispute with 2channel's hosting provider, Nishimura no longer administrates 2channel, but instead operates a competitor to it, 2ch.sc.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: Nishimura was born in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, but raised in Tokyo. He founded Tokyo Access LP in 1998. In May 1999, he opened 2channel while he was studying at the University of Central Arkansas. In June 2001, he founded Irregulars and Partners KK with Ichirō Yamamoto, which was involved in 2channel's management, but later left.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: In January 2007, Nishimura was an advisor to Skip-Up KK, CEO of Tokyo Plus KK, co-founder of KK, and a director of Niwango, the company that launched Nico Nico Douga. He left his role at Niwango in February 2013.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: During 2008, 2ch generated an annual revenue upwards of ¥100 million for Nishimura. The site was also run by 300 "volunteer administrators" who received no pay. Nishimura justified this with the comment, "I don't think that's all that different from some dude who opens a convenience store in front of a train station. They can make a million yen a day."


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: In August 2013, placed the credit card details of thousands of 2channel users into the public domain, and this event resulted in a series of lawsuits against the website. Around the same time, the took place throughout 2channel, a controversial community development involving users protesting against which specialize in summarizing 2channel threads, which were taking away site traffic.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: On 19 February 2014, Jim Watkins, as chairman of N.T. Technology, Inc., 2channel's domain registrar, seized 2channel's domain. He took full control over the website, relieved Nishimura of all power, and assumed the role of website administrator. Watkins claimed that Nishimura had failed to pay him money owed which led to the seizure as a way to cover Nishimura's debts, while Nishimura claimed that he had in fact paid everything owed and that the domain transfer was an illegal domain hijacking. In response, Nishimura created his own clone of 2channel at , scraping the contents of the entire 2channel website and updating 2ch.sc as new posts appeared on 2ch.net. In a Q&A session on 4chan shortly after becoming the site's owner, Nishimura claimed that 2channel was stolen by Watkins.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: In October 2017, Watkins renamed 2channel to 5channel and transferred it to Loki Technology Inc. to avoid legal complications.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: On 21 September 2015, he bought the website 4chan from Christopher Poole. The amount paid has not been disclosed, but "The New York Times" has reported that the sale was made possible with funds provided by three Japanese investors.


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: Users on 4chan refer to him commonly as 'hiro' but also by the ethnic slurs "gook moot" or "Hiroshima Nagasaki", "Jackie 4chan", or simply "hiroshimoot".


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: Nishimura has lost a number of libel lawsuits which have led to him being assessed a considerable amount in penalties. In 2008, he told "Wired" he has no intention of paying, saying, "If the verdict mandates deleting things, I'll do it," but, "I just haven't complied with demands to pay money. Would a cell phone carrier feel responsible when somebody receives a threatening phone call?"


title: Hiroyuki Nishimura

text: Nishimura has filed a number of lawsuits against Jim Watkins in connection with his allegation that 2channel was illegally seized. He has attempted to repossess the domain both through WIPO's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy and through the Japanese court system. Through the Japan Patent Office, Nishimura owns the trademark "2channel", though the WIPO refused to intervene on his behalf on account of that, suggesting the parties go to court instead as it was not, in its view, a case of "cybersquatting" but rather a "business dispute".


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Kari Samantha Wuhrer (born April 28, 1967) is an American actress, model, and singer. Wuhrer began her career as a teenager, and is best known for her time as a cast member on MTV's "Remote Control", as well as her roles as Maggie Beckett in the television series "Sliders" and as Sheriff Samantha Parker in the horror comedy film "Eight Legged Freaks".


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Wuhrer was born in Brookfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Karin (née Noble), a payroll accountant, and German-American Andrew Wuhrer, a police officer and car salesman. She has three siblings. As a teenager, she sang in nightclubs, sneaking out of the family home to perform. She studied acting from the age of 13 at the Wooster School, then studied drama at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, Columbia University, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with famed teacher Uta Hagen.


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Wuhrer's first television break was MTV's "Remote Control" (1987). She was a regular cast member of the television series "Swamp Thing" from 1991 to 1992. She also worked as a VJ on MTV during the same period. In 1993, she was a regular in the TV series "Class of '96", where she played college student Robin Farr. From 1994 to 1995, she starred as Ariel Hunter in the long-running prime-time soap opera "Beverly Hills, 90210".


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: During this period, she appeared in "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" (1990) and starred in "" (1991). In 1995, she also had a supporting role in the John Singleton film "Higher Learning", followed by "Thinner" (1996), "Anaconda" (1997), and "Kissing a Fool" (1998).


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Wuhrer returned to television in 1997 on the series "Sliders" as Maggie Beckett, joining the cast as a regular and staying until the series ended in 2000. Wuhrer also guested in the TV series "Leverage".


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Wuhrer signed a record deal with Rick Rubin and her only album, "Shiny", was released in 1999 by Del-Fi Records. In addition to her singing, she also wrote most of the songs on the album and played both the guitar and the flute on several tracks.


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Later mainstream film roles include "Berserker" (2001) and "Eight Legged Freaks" (2002). She was an executive producer of the direct-to-video film "Spider's Web", with Stephen Baldwin, of which Wuhrer said: "The pace of making this movie, it was extreme. It was the longest day imaginable".


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Wuhrer is also known by gamers for her role as Agent Tanya in cutscenes of Westwood Studios' RTS video game "" and its subsequent expansion pack, "".


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Wuhrer was later voted No. 76 on the "FHM" 100 Sexiest Women of 2000, No. 73 in the "FHM" 100 Sexiest Women in the World of 2001 and No. 36 in "Maxim" magazine's 50 Sexiest Women Countdown of 1999. She posed semi-nude in "Playboy" magazine in August 2000 as their "Babe of the Month" and earlier considered multiple offers to appear fully nude throughout 1998. She was also No. 64 on "Celebrity Skin's" 100 Sexiest Stars of All Time and No. 4 in the "Celebrity Nudity Database's" Most Popular Actresses of 1999.


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: Her breast implants encapsulated during the filming of "Spider's Web", so she had them removed in 2002.


title: Kari Wuhrer

text: From February 3, 2005, through November 2005, Wuhrer joined the cast of the daytime soap opera "General Hospital" as FBI Agent Reese Marshall, the former love interest of mobster Sonny Corinthos and former best friend/rival of Carly Corinthos. Wuhrer's character died after suffering injuries in a train wreck. In January 2006, Wuhrer announced that she was suing "General Hospital", claiming that she was fired because of her pregnancy.


title: Cypress

text: Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word "cypress" is derived from Old French "cipres", which was imported from Latin "cypressus", the latinisation of the Greek κυπάρισσος ("kyparissos").


title: Cypress

text: Cypress trees are a large classification of conifers, encompassing the trees and shrubs from the cypress family (Cupressaceae) and many others with the word “cypress” in their common name. Many cypress trees have needle-like, evergreen foliage and acorn-like seed cones.


title: Cypress

text: The family Cupressaceae also contains 13–16 other genera (not listed above) that do not bear "cypress" in their common names.


title: Fruits Basket (2019 TV series)

text: The 2019 "Fruits Basket" anime series is the second based on the manga series of the same name by Natsuki Takaya, this time adapting all 23 volumes of the story. The new anime adaptation was announced in November 2018, featuring a new cast and staff, as per 's request, with TMS Entertainment handling the 63 episodes-long production from April 2019 to June 2021, divided into three seasons. directed the series, with handling series composition and handling character designs. The reboot is a co-production of Funimation, who released the series through Crunchyroll-Funimation partnership.


title: Fruits Basket (2019 TV series)

text: The first season adapted the manga's first 5 volumes and parts of volumes 6 and 7. It ran for 25 episodes from April 6 to September 21, 2019 on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, and TV Aichi. The first opening theme for episodes 1–13 is "Again" by Beverly. The second opening theme for episodes 14–25 is "Chime" by . The first ending theme for episodes 1–13 is "Lucky Ending" by Vickeblanka. The second ending theme for episodes 14–25 is "One Step Closer" by INTERSECTION.


title: Fruits Basket (2019 TV series)

text: The second season adapted the rest of volumes 6 and 7 and all content from volume 8 to the beginning of volume 17. It aired from April 7 to September 22, 2020. The third opening theme for episodes 26–38 is "Prism" by AmPm ft Miyuna. The fourth opening theme for episodes 39 onwards is "Home" by . The third ending theme for episodes 26–38 is "ad meliora" by THE CHARM PARK. The fourth ending theme for episodes 39 onwards is "Eden" by Monkey Majik.


title: Fruits Basket (2019 TV series)

text: The third and final season adapted the remaining content of the manga series. It aired from April 6 to June 29, 2021, titled "Fruits Basket: The Final". The fifth opening theme is "Pleasure", by WARPs UP, and the fifth ending theme is "Haru Urara" by GENIC.


title: Fruits Basket (2019 TV series)

text: Funimation licensed the 2019 remake anime for a simulcast in partnership with Crunchyroll and produced an English version as part of their simuldub program. Unlike the Japanese version, a good majority of the English dub's cast reprised their roles from the original anime. Funimation's English dub of the remake series began airing on ABC Me in Australia starting on June 19, 2020. Episode 19 was skipped in ABC Me's broadcast run, likely due to the episode's content.


title: Chess.com

text: Chess.com is an internet chess server, news website and social networking website. The site has a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available for accounts with subscriptions. Live online chess can be played against other users in daily, rapid, blitz or bullet time controls, with a number of chess variants also available. Chess versus a chess engine, computer analysis, chess puzzles and teaching resources are also offered.


title: Chess.com

text: One of the largest chess platforms in the world, Chess.com has hosted online tournaments including Titled Tuesdays, the PRO Chess League, the Speed Chess Championships, PogChamps, and computer vs. computer events.


title: Chess.com

text: Chess.com operates a freemium business model: main site features are free but others are limited or unavailable in some respects until a subscription is paid.


title: Chess.com

text: Visitors to the site can play on a live chess server and correspondence style games, called "daily chess" on the site. Players may also play against chess engines (computer chess), and participate in what the site calls "vote chess", in which players form teams and vote on the best move. Additional features include tactics training, puzzle rush, chess forums, articles, videos, lessons, chess news, downloads, opening databases, groups, live broadcasts, daily puzzles, team matches, online coaching and a game database of over 2 million games.


title: Chess.com

text: The company publishes a large number of articles on a variety of chess-related topics, including chess strategy, opening theory and history. Regular contributors include Gregory Serper, Bruce Pandolfini, Sam Shankland, Dan Heisman, Jeremy Silman, Simon Williams, Daniel Naroditsky, Natalia Pogonina and Daniel Rensch.


title: Chess.com

text: Users can play a number of variants on the live server, including crazyhouse, three-check, four-player, king of the hill, chess960, atomic, racing kings and bughouse.


title: Chess.com

text: Chess.com has a policy against the use of chess engines in all forms of the game, except where "specifically permitted (such as a computer tournament)". It utilizes algorithms and statistical data to catch players using engines in games and bans many on a daily basis, and employs six moderators to prevent cheating.


title: Chess.com

text: Chess.com also runs the subsidiary site chesskid.com for chess players of all ages. ChessKid focuses on a child-friendly environment aimed towards chess improvement for beginners to club players. It also has a guardianship program in which parents and authorized coaches can overlook the child's progress over time, to see statistics about their progress in tactics or how many videos they watched so that they can give encouragement and tips on how to improve. ChessKid features no advertising.


title: Chess.com

text: ChessKid.com has run a yearly online championship called CONIC (the ChessKid Online National Invitational Championship), since 2012 which is recognized by the United States Chess Federation. According to David Petty, the event organizer in 2013,


title: Chess.com

text: ChessKid has made agreements and partnerships with chess associations to bring the educational benefit of chess to children in schools. In 2014, for a trial period, all signups to the ICA (Illinois Chess Association) included a free gold member subscription to ChessKid. They also have a long-term partnership with the NTCA (North Texas Chess Academy) which gives children access to online instructors.


title: Chess.com

text: Chess.com has held the Speed Chess Championship annually since 2016, involving a single-elimination tournament featuring some of the world's best players. Nakamura has won five championships, while Carlsen has won two.


title: Chess.com

text: The USCL was a nationwide national chess league in the United States between 2005 and 2016. Chess.com hosted the event in 2013.


title: Chess.com

text: The PRO Chess League was the result of the US Chess League changing its name and format, with faster time controls and a focus on the flexibility of forming and managing teams. Chess.com has hosted the PCL twice starting in 2017, having a regular and a summer series.


title: Chess.com

text: Titled Tuesday is a 11-round Swiss-system 3+1 blitz chess tournament held on every Tuesday. Grandmaster participants include Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Andreikin, Wesley So, and Fabiano Caruana. The first event was held on October 28, 2014, with a prize fund of $500 and was won by Baadur Jobava. The prize fund was gradually upgraded to $5000 per week. GM Hikaru Nakamura has won the most events with (as of September 2022) a total of 35 tournament wins since October 2020, followed by GMs Dmitry Andreikin and Jeffery Xiong with 9, Magnus Carlsen has won three of the events in which he has partaken as of 2017.


title: Chess.com

text: In June 2018, Chess.com held a special version of the tournament for which the winner would go on to participate in the Isle of Man International which had a prize fund of £144,000. Iranian GM Pouria Darini won the event.


title: Chess.com

text: Death Matches were introduced in January 2012. They feature titled players taking part in a series of blitz games over a non-stop 3-hour period (5-minute, 3-minute and 1-minute, all with a one-second increment). There have been 38 deathmatches, participants including the grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura, Dmitry Andreikin, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Lê Quang Liêm, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Judit Polgár and Nigel Short.


title: Chess.com

text: In November 2017, Chess.com held an open tournament, called the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship (CCCC, later CCC), with the ten strongest chess engines, with $2,500 in prize money. The top-two engines competed in a "Superfinale" tournament between the two finalists - Stockfish and Houdini. In the 20-game Superfinal, Stockfish won over Houdini with a score 10.5-9.5. Five games were decisive, with 15 ending in a draw. Of the decisive games, three games were won by Stockfish, and two by Houdini.


title: Chess.com

text: In August 2018, the site announced that the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship has returned, this time as a non-stop tournament for chess engines.


title: Chess.com

text: Chess.com has hosted PogChamps, an amateur online tournament featuring Twitch streamers, since 2020. The first PogChamps featured notable streamers including xQcOW, MoistCr1TiKaL, Ludwig Ahgren, and forsen. Notable new participants from PogChamps 2 included itsHafu and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson. PogChamps 3, beginning in February 2021, debuted with a wider range of Internet personalities and celebrities, with new competitors including MrBeast, Neekolul, Myth, Pokimane, actor Rainn Wilson, and rapper Logic.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (one decimeter). Radio waves with frequencies above the UHF band fall into the super-high frequency (SHF) or microwave frequency range. Lower frequency signals fall into the VHF (very high frequency) or lower bands. UHF radio waves propagate mainly by line of sight; they are blocked by hills and large buildings although the transmission through building walls is strong enough for indoor reception. They are used for television broadcasting, cell phones, satellite communication including GPS, personal radio services including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, walkie-talkies, cordless phones, satellite phones, and numerous other applications.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: The IEEE defines the UHF radar band as frequencies between 300 MHz and 1 GHz. Two other IEEE radar bands overlap the ITU UHF band: the L band between 1 and 2 GHz and the S band between 2 and 4 GHz.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: Radio waves in the UHF band travel almost entirely by line-of-sight propagation (LOS) and ground reflection; unlike in the HF band there is little to no reflection from the ionosphere (skywave propagation), or ground wave. UHF radio waves are blocked by hills and cannot travel beyond the horizon, but can penetrate foliage and buildings for indoor reception. Since the wavelengths of UHF waves are comparable to the size of buildings, trees, vehicles and other common objects, reflection and diffraction from these objects can cause fading due to multipath propagation, especially in built-up urban areas. Atmospheric moisture reduces, or attenuates, the strength of UHF signals over long distances, and the attenuation increases with frequency. UHF TV signals are generally more degraded by moisture than lower bands, such as VHF TV signals.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: Since UHF transmission is limited by the visual horizon to 30–40 miles (48–64 km) and usually to shorter distances by local terrain, it allows the same frequency channels to be reused by other users in neighboring geographic areas (frequency reuse). Radio repeaters are used to retransmit UHF signals when a distance greater than the line of sight is required.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: Occasionally when conditions are right, UHF radio waves can travel long distances by tropospheric ducting as the atmosphere warms and cools throughout the day.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: The length of an antenna is related to the length of the radio waves used. Due to the short wavelengths, UHF antennas are conveniently stubby and short; at UHF frequencies a quarter-wave monopole, the most common omnidirectional antenna is between 2.5 and 25 cm long. UHF wavelengths are short enough that efficient transmitting antennas are small enough to mount on handheld and mobile devices, so these frequencies are used for two-way land mobile radio systems, such as walkie-talkies, two-way radios in vehicles, and for portable wireless devices; cordless phones and cell phones. Omnidirectional UHF antennas used on mobile devices are usually short whips, sleeve dipoles, rubber ducky antennas or the planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) used in cellphones. Higher gain omnidirectional UHF antennas can be made of collinear arrays of dipoles and are used for mobile base stations and cellular base station antennas.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: The short wavelengths also allow high gain antennas to be conveniently small. High gain antennas for point-to-point communication links and UHF television reception are usually Yagi, log periodic, corner reflectors, or reflective array antennas. At the top end of the band, slot antennas and parabolic dishes become practical. For satellite communication, helical, and turnstile antennas are used since satellites typically employ circular polarization which is not sensitive to the relative orientation of the transmitting and receiving antennas. For television broadcasting specialized vertical radiators that are mostly modifications of the slot antenna or reflective array antenna are used: the slotted cylinder, zig-zag, and panel antennas.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: UHF television broadcasting fulfilled the demand for additional over-the-air television channels in urban areas. Today, much of the bandwidth has been reallocated to land mobile radio system, trunked radio and mobile telephone use. UHF channels are still used for digital television.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: Since at UHF frequencies transmitting antennas are small enough to install on portable devices, the UHF spectrum is used worldwide for land mobile radio systems, two-way radios used for voice communication for commercial, industrial, public safety, and military purposes. Examples of personal radio services are GMRS, PMR446, and UHF CB. Some wireless computer networks use UHF frequencies. The widely adopted GSM and UMTS cellular networks use UHF cellular frequencies.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: Major telecommunications providers have deployed voice and data cellular networks in VHF/UHF range. This allows mobile phones and mobile computing devices to be connected to the public switched telephone network and the Internet. Satellite phones also use this frequency in the L band and S band.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: UHF channels are used for digital television broadcasting on both over the air channels and cable television channels. Since 1962, UHF channel tuners (at the time, channels 14–83) have been required in television receivers by the All-Channel Receiver Act. However, because of their more limited range, and because few sets could receive them until older sets were replaced, UHF channels were less desirable to broadcasters than VHF channels (and licenses sold for lower prices).


title: Ultra high frequency

text: A complete list of US Television Frequency allocations can be found at Pan-American television frequencies.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: There is a considerable amount of lawful unlicensed activity (cordless phones, wireless networking) clustered around 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz, regulated under Title 47 CFR Part 15. These ISM bands – frequencies with a higher unlicensed power permitted for use originally by Industrial, Scientific, Medical apparatus – are now some of the most crowded in the spectrum because they are open to everyone. The 2.45 GHz frequency is the standard for use by microwave ovens, adjacent to the frequencies allocated for Bluetooth network devices.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: The spectrum from 806 MHz to 890 MHz (UHF channels 70–83) was taken away from TV broadcast services in 1983, primarily for analog mobile telephony.


title: Ultra high frequency

text: In 2009, as part of the transition from analog to digital over-the-air broadcast of television, the spectrum from 698 MHz to 806 MHz (UHF channels 52–69) was removed from TV broadcasting, making it available for other uses. Channel 55, for instance, was sold to Qualcomm for their MediaFLO service, which was later sold to AT&T, and discontinued in 2011. Some US broadcasters had been offered incentives to vacate this channel early, permitting its immediate mobile use. The FCC's scheduled auction for this newly available spectrum was completed in March 2008.


title: Brittany Bell

text: Brittany Mesa Bell (born November 9, 1987) is an American model, dancer, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Guam 2014 and represented Guam at Miss Universe 2014, where she was unplaced. She had previously been crowned Miss Arizona USA 2010 and represented Arizona in Miss USA 2010.


title: Brittany Bell

text: Bell was born and raised in Barrigada, Guam, to a Chamorro mother and a father of Native American, West Indian and Black American heritage.


title: Brittany Bell

text: In 2009, she was crowned Miss Arizona USA 2010, as well as Miss Congeniality, As Miss Arizona, she went on to compete in the Miss USA 2010 but did not advance beyond the opening round at the pageant held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 16, 2010.


title: Brittany Bell

text: Bell spent three seasons as a dancer for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. She graduated from Arizona State University in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism.


title: Brittany Bell

text: She and actor Nick Cannon have three children: a son born in 2017, a daughter born in 2020 and a son born in 2022.


title: Dogfight

text: A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft conducted at close range. Dogfighting first occurred in Mexico in 1913, shortly after the invention of the airplane. Until at least 1992, it was a component in every major war, though with steadily declining frequency. Since then, longer-range weapons have made dogfighting largely obsolete.


title: Dogfight

text: Modern terminology for air-to-air combat is air combat maneuvering (ACM), which refers to tactical situations requiring the use of individual basic fighter maneuvers (BFM) to attack or evade one or more opponents. This differs from aerial warfare, which deals with the strategy involved in planning and executing various missions.


title: Dogfight

text: The term "dogfight" has been used for centuries to describe a melee: a fierce, fast-paced close quarters battle between two or more opponents. The term gained popularity during World War II, although its origin in air combat can be traced to the latter years of World War I. One of the first written references to the modern-day usage of the word was in an account of the death of Baron von Richthofen in The Graphic in May 1918: 'The Baron joined the mêlée, which, scattering into groups, developed into what our men call a dog fight'.


title: Dogfight

text: On March 21, 1918, several British newspapers published an article by Frederic Cutlack, where the word was used in the modern sense: 'A patrol of seven Australian machines on Saturday met abot twenty of this circus [von Richthofen's] at 12,000 feet. Ten of the enemy dived to attack our men. A regular dog-fight ensued for half a minute.'


title: Dogfight

text: The first supposed instance of plane on plane combat and the first instance of one plane intercepting another during an aerial conflict apparently occurred during the Mexican Revolution on November 30, 1913, between two American soldiers of fortune fighting for opposing sides, Dean Ivan Lamb and Phil Rader. The story comes from Lamb himself. According to his own statements in an interview two decades later, both men had orders to kill, but neither pilot wanted to harm the other, so they exchanged multiple volleys of pistol fire, intentionally missing before exhausting their supply of ammunition.


title: Dogfight

text: Dogfighting became widespread in World War I. Aircraft were initially used as mobile observation vehicles, and early pilots gave little thought to aerial combat. The new aeroplane proved their worth by spotting the hidden German advance on Paris in the second month of the war.


title: Dogfight

text: Enemy pilots at first simply exchanged waves, or shook their fists at each other. Due to weight restrictions, only small weapons could be carried on board. Intrepid pilots decided to interfere with enemy reconnaissance by improvised means, including throwing bricks, grenades and sometimes rope, which they hoped would entangle the enemy plane's propeller. Pilots quickly began firing hand-held guns at enemy planes, such as pistols and carbines. The first aerial dogfight of the war occurred during the Battle of Cer (August 15–24, 1914), when Serbian aviator Miodrag Tomić encountered an Austro-Hungarian plane while performing a reconnaissance mission over Austro-Hungarian positions. The Austro-Hungarian pilot initially waved, and Tomić reciprocated. The Austro-Hungarian pilot then fired at Tomić with his revolver. Tomić managed to escape, and within several weeks, all Serbian and Austro-Hungarian planes were fitted with machine-guns. In August 1914, Staff-Captain Pyotr Nesterov, from Russia, became the first pilot to ram his plane into an enemy spotter aircraft. In October 1914, an airplane was shot down by a handgun from another plane for the first time over Reims, France. Once machine guns were mounted to the airplane, either on a flexible mounting or higher on the wings of early biplanes, the era of air combat began.


title: Dogfight

text: The biggest problem was mounting a machine gun onto an aircraft so that it could be fired forward, through the propeller, and aimed by pointing the nose of the aircraft directly at the enemy. French aviator Roland Garros solved this problem by mounting steel deflector wedges to the propeller of a Morane Saulnier monoplane. He achieved three kills, but was forced down due to engine failure down behind enemy lines, and captured before he could destroy his plane by burning it. The wreckage was brought to Anthony Fokker, a Dutch designer who built aircraft for the Germans. Fokker decided that the wedges were much too risky, and improved the design by connecting the trigger of an MG 08 Maxim machine gun to the timing of the engine. The Germans acquired an early air superiority due to the invention of the synchronization gear in 1915, transforming air combat with the Fokker E.I, the first synchronized, forward-firing fighter plane. On the evening of July 1, 1915, the very first aerial engagement by a fighter plane armed with a synchronized, forward-firing machine gun occurred just to the east of Luneville, France. The German Fokker E.I was flown by Lieutenant Kurt Wintgens, earning the victory over a French two-seat observation monoplane. Later that same month, on July 25, 1915, British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) Major Lanoe Hawker, flying a very early production Bristol Scout C., attacked three separate aircraft during a single sortie, shooting down two with a non-synchronizable Lewis gun which was mounted next to his cockpit at an outwards angle to avoid hitting the propeller. He forced the third one down, and was awarded the Victoria Cross.


title: Dogfight

text: Battles in the air increased as the technological advantage swung from the British to the Germans, then back again. The Feldflieger Abteilung observation units of the German air service, in 1914–15, consisted of six two-seat observation aircraft each, with each unit assigned to a particular German Army headquarters location. They had but a single Fokker Eindecker aircraft assigned to each "FFA" unit for general defensive duties, so pilots such as Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke began as lone hunters with each "FFA" unit, shooting unarmed spotter planes and enemy aircraft out of the sky. During the first part of the war, there was no established tactical doctrine for air-to-air combat. Oswald Boelcke was the first to analyze the tactics of aerial warfare, resulting in a set of rules known as the Dicta Boelcke. Many of Boelcke's concepts, conceived in 1916, are still applicable today, including use of sun and altitude, surprise attack, and turning to meet a threat.


title: Dogfight

text: British Brigadier General Hugh Trenchard ordered that all reconnaissance aircraft had to be supported by at least three fighters, creating the first use of tactical formations in the air. The Germans responded by forming Jastas, large squadrons of fighters solely dedicated to destroying enemy aircraft, under the supervision of Boelcke. Pilots who shot down five or more fighters became known as aces. One of the most famous dogfights, resulting in the death of Major Hawker, is described by the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen,


title: Dogfight

text: I WAS extremely proud when, one fine day, I was informed that the airman whom I had brought down on the twenty- third of November, 1916, was the English [equivalent of] Immelmann... First we circled twenty times to the left, and then thirty times to the right. Each tried to get behind and above the other. Soon I discovered that I was not meeting a beginner. He had not the slightest intention of breaking off the fight. He was traveling in a machine which turned beautifully. However, my own was better at rising than his, and I succeeded at last in getting above and beyond my English waltzing partner... The impertinent fellow was full of cheek and when we had got down to about 3,000 feet he merrily waved to me as if he would say, "Well, how do you do?" The circles which we made around one another were so narrow that their diameter was probably no more than 250 or 300 feet. I had time to take a good look at my opponent... When he had come down to about three hundred feet he tried to escape by flying in a zig-zag course during which, as is well known, it is difficult for an observer to shoot. That was my most favorable moment. I followed him at an altitude of from two hundred and fifty feet to one hundred and fifty feet, firing all the time. The Englishman could not help falling. But the jamming of my gun nearly robbed me of my success. My opponent fell, shot through the head, one hundred and fifty feet behind our line.


title: Dogfight

text: Despite the Germans' early lead in combat tactics and their 'Dicta Boelcke', the Allies were quick to adapt and develop their own tactics. The Royal Flying Corps' Albert Ball was one of a band of pilots who liked to fly solo and he developed 'stalking' tactics for going after enemy two-seaters. He even used his Lewis gun in its top wing adjustable Foster mounting to fire upwards into the underside of unsuspecting enemy aircraft. Other RFC pilots such as James McCudden and Mick Mannock emphasised mutual support and the advantages of attacking from height. Mannock expressed this in a list of aerial combat rules that were similar to Boelcke's.


title: Dogfight

text: During 1916, aerial reconnaissance patrols had most often been unaccompanied as there had been little if any aerial disputes, between the belligerents. However, just as the Sinai and Palestine Campaign ground war on the Gaza to Beersheba line came to resemble trench warfare on the western front, so too did the air war over southern Palestine come to resemble that being fought over France. After the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917 and during the Stalemate in Southern Palestine which followed, the concentration of Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and Ottoman Army forces holding established front lines grew, as associated supply dumps and lines of communications were developed. The need to know about these fuelled "intense rivalry in the air". Aerial reconnaissance patrols were regularly attacked, so it was necessary for all photography and artillery observation patrols to be accompanied by escort aircraft. These special EEF patrols which grew into squadrons, accompanied and protected the reconnaissance aircraft, attacking hostile aircraft wherever they were found, either in the air, or on the ground. However the technically superior German aircraft shot down numbers of EEF aircraft during dog fights.


title: Dogfight

text: By the end of the war, the underpowered machines from just ten years prior had been transformed into fairly powerful, swift, and heavily armed fighter planes, and the basic tactics for dogfighting had been laid down.


title: Dogfight

text: Airplane technology rapidly increased in sophistication after World War I. By 1936, dogfighting was thought to be a thing of the past, since aircraft were reaching top speeds of over 250 miles per hour (400 km/h). The experiences of the Spanish civil war proved this theory was wrong.


title: Dogfight

text: At the beginning of the war, new tactics were developed, most notably in the "Luftwaffe" Condor Legion. Lieutenant Werner Mölders advised abandoning the standard “V” formation used in combat, and pairing fighters in twos, starting the practice of having a wingman at one's side. He advised that pairs of aircraft approaching a fight should increase the distance between them instead of holding tight formations, a precursor to the combat spread maneuver. He also started the practice of training pilots to fly at night, and with instruments only. Using the new tactics, and flying the newest Bf 109 fighters, the Germans shot down 22 Spanish Republican fighters within a five-day period, suffering no losses of their own.


title: Dogfight

text: During the 1930s two different schools of thought about air-to-air combat began to emerge, resulting in two different trends of monoplane fighter development. In Japan and Italy especially, there continued to be a strong belief that lightly armed, highly maneuverable single seat fighters would still play a primary role in air-to-air combat. Aircraft such as the Nakajima Ki-27 and Nakajima Ki-43 and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero in Japan, and the Fiat G.50 and Macchi C.200 in Italy epitomised a generation of monoplanes designed to this concept.


title: Dogfight

text: The other stream of thought, which emerged primarily in Britain, Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States was the belief the high speeds of modern combat aircraft and the g-forces imposed by aerial combat meant that dogfighting in the classic WWI sense would be impossible. Fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Supermarine Spitfire, the Yakovlev Yak-1 and the Curtiss P-40 were all designed for high speeds and a good rate of climb. Good maneuverability was not a primary objective.


title: Dogfight

text: Immediately following the Spanish Civil War came World War II, during which dogfighting was most prevalent. It was widely believed that strategic bombing alone was synonymous with air power; a fallacy that would not be fully understood until Vietnam. After the failings in Spain, a greater emphasis was placed on the accuracy of air-to-ground attacks. The need to stop bombers from reaching their targets, or to protect them on their missions, was the primary purpose for most dogfights of the era.


title: Dogfight

text: Dogfighting was very prominent in the skies over Europe. The air force in France, while a major force during World War I, was inadequate and poorly organized, and quickly fell to the German onslaught. As the first battles between the Germans and the British began, the power of the German's anti-aircraft artillery became readily apparent, with 88 millimeter shells capable of firing in the air. General Wolfram von Richthofen noted that these guns were equally destructive when used for ground fire. Adolph Malan compiled a list of aerial combat rules that were widely taught to RAF pilots. The German Bf 109 and the British Spitfire were some of the most common fighters used in the European theater.


title: Dogfight

text: Pulling up into his blind spot I watched his plane grow larger and larger in my sight. But this German pilot was not content to fly straight and level. Before I could open fire his plane slewed to the right, and seeing me on his tail, he jerked back on the stick into the only defensive maneuver his plane could make. I banked my 47 over to the right and pulled back on the stick, striving to get him once more into my ring sight. The violent maneuver applied terrific G’s to my body, and I started to black out as the blood rushed from my head. Fighting every second to overcome this blackness about me, I pulled back on the stick, further and further, so that the enemy would just show at the bottom of my ring sight to allow for the correct deflection.


title: Dogfight

text: We were both flying in a tight circle. "Just a little more and I’ll have him." Pressing the [trigger] I waited expectantly for the 109 to explode. "I’ve hit his wing." A section two-feet long broke loose from the right wing as the machine gun cut like a machete through it. "Too low, a little more rudder and the bullets will find his cockpit." I could see occasional strikes further up the wing, but it was too late. The 109, sensing that I was inside him on the turn, slunk into a nearby cloud. Straightening my plane, I climbed over the top of the bank, and poised on the other side, waiting for him to appear. But the 109 did not appear, and not wishing to tempt the gods of fate further, I pushed my stick forward, entered the protective cover of the clouds, and headed home.


title: Dogfight

text: During this time, three new Russian fighters, the LaGG-1, the Yak-1, and the MiG-3 were just coming off of the production line. The Soviet Air Defense Force had been fraught with problems since World War I. The German Barbarossa offensive on June 22, 1941, destroyed more than 2000 Soviet aircraft on the first day, and more than 5000 before October. With great desperation, the Soviets fought in dogfights over Leningrad, Moscow, and Ukraine for more than a year.


title: Dogfight

text: Fireteam, a triple of aircraft ("troika"), has been the main tactical unit used in battles since the beginning of World War II. The analysis and synthesis of fighting experience resulted in a conclusion that group tactics should have been rejected and replaced by action pairs. However, ramming an opponent was still a common practice among the pilots of the Soviet Union. Another successful maneuver was a "Sokolinnyi udar" (falcon punch) when a pilot obtained a speed advantage by swooping down on an opponent, characteristically from the direction of the sun in order to hide their fighter within the glare of the brilliant light before and during the attack. This maneuver and many other tactical principles were introduced by Alexander Pokryshkin, one of the greatest tacticians of the Soviet Air Force who showed his worth during World War II. His famous motto sounded as "Height, speed, maneuver, fire!". It became popular in the air armies and was adopted by pilots.


title: Dogfight

text: Struggling with morale problems, the Soviets slowly and methodically began to regain air supremacy after the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. This theater is notable for including the only female fighter aces in history, Yekaterina Budanova and Lydia Litvyak.


title: Dogfight

text: The Second Sino-Japanese War began on June 7, 1937, between China and Japan. The Japanese used the Mitsubishi A5M; the predecessor of the famous "Zero", which was a very lightweight and maneuverable fighter. The Chinese mainly used Russian bi-planes similar to those from WWI, such as the Polikarpov I-15 and early monoplanes such as I-16. Despite being much lower in power and speed than the Japanese planes, the Chinese planes were much more maneuverable, and many dogfights ensued, resulting in high losses reported on both sides. Reports of dogfights that made it to the U.S. military provided valuable insight into the Japanese tactics and their plane's flight characteristics.


title: Dogfight

text: After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands, the United States entered the war. The Japanese used the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, an extremely lightweight fighter known for its exceptional range and maneuverability. The U.S. military tested out the Akutan Zero, a Mitsubishi A6M2 which was captured intact in 1942, advising – along the same lines that General Claire Chennault, commander of the Kunming-based Flying Tigers had already advised his pilots over a year before – "Never attempt to dogfight a Zero." Even though its engine was rather low in power, the Zero had very low wing loading characteristics, a small turn radius, a top speed over , and could climb better than any fighter used by the U.S. at that time, although it was poorly armored compared to U.S. aircraft.


title: Dogfight

text: A pilot who realized that new tactics had to be devised was Lieutenant Commander John S. "Jimmy" Thach, commander of Fighting Three in San Diego. He read the early reports coming out of China and wrestled with the problem of his Grumman F4F Wildcats being relatively slower and much less maneuverable than the Japanese planes. Using matchsticks on his kitchen table, he devised a defensive maneuver he called "beam defense position", but commonly called the "Thach Weave". Thach reasoned that, because the Zero had fabric wing-covers that tended to "balloon" at speeds above 295 mph, which made the plane very hard to turn, he could use high speed and a formation of four planes, consisting of two pairs of aircraft, flying line-abreast (side by side at the same altitude). Keeping the leader of each pair in close formation with their wingman, the pairs could fly about apart (the turn radius of the Wildcat) and adopt a weaving formation when either or both pairs fell under attack by Japanese fighters, allowing each pair to evade the attack while at the same time covering the other pair. Thach made a diagram of the idea and showed it to other pilots, but in trial-runs people like Butch O'Hare found it difficult to make the shot while, at the same time, evading the two friendly planes coming at him head on.


title: Dogfight

text: Thach later faced the A6M Zero during the Battle of Midway, in June 1942, for the test of his theory. Although outnumbered, he found that a Zero would lock onto the tail of one of the fighters. In response, the two planes would turn toward each other, with one plane's path crossing in front of the other. More importantly, the pursuer would have to follow that path to maintain pursuit, also crossing in front of the American plane's sights. Thus, when the Zero followed its original target through the turn it would come into a position to be fired on by the target's wingman, and the predator would become the prey. His tactic proved to be effective and was soon adopted by other squadrons. The Thach Weave helped make up for the inferiority of the US planes in maneuverability and numbers, until new aircraft could be brought into service. This tactic later morphed into the more fluid and versatile "loose-deuce maneuvering" that was to prove useful in the Vietnam war.


title: Dogfight

text: Another effective maneuver used by the U.S. pilots was a simple break, which consisted of turning sharply across an attacker's flight path, which worked well in part because the large nose of the Zero tended to obstruct the pilot's view. Still another good tactic was a high-side guns pass, which consisted of diving upon the Zero, shooting in one high-speed pass, and using the speed to climb back above the fight to dive again. By 1943 the U.S. began to produce planes that were better matched against the Japanese planes, such as the


title: Dogfight

text: Technology advanced extremely fast during World War II in ways that would change dogfighting forever. Jet propulsion had been demonstrated long before the war, by German engineer Hans von Ohain in 1934, and by British engineer Frank Whittle in 1937. The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first jet fighter to be used in battle, with a speed over , and began taking a toll on Allied bombing missions in 1944. The British were testing a jet that same year, the Gloster Meteor, which would later see action in the Korean War. Although U.S. General Hap Arnold test flew the XP-59A in 1942, the plane was never used in combat. Other prime inventions of the era include radar and air-to-air missiles.


title: Dogfight

text: Enemy pilots were construed as weak and evil. For example, in World War II, describing the Soviet tactics, the Luftwaffe claimed that, "The characteristic feature of the average Soviet fighter pilot were a tendency toward caution and reluctance instead of toughness and stamina, brute strength instead of genuine combat efficiency, abysmal hatred instead of fairness and chivalry..."


title: Dogfight

text: After World War II, the question began to rise about the future usefulness of fighter aircraft. This was especially true for the U.S., where the focus was placed on small, fast, long-range bombers capable of delivering atomic bombs. The Korean War began in June 1950, and the North Koreans were outmatched by the U.S. Air Force. The war was nearly over by October, with the occupation of North Korea when, on November 1, Chinese MiG-15s attacked. The Chinese began supplying North Korea with troops and provisions, and the war quickly resumed.


title: Dogfight

text: At faster, the MiG-15 was more than a match for the U.S. P-80 Shooting Star, using the same dive and shoot tactic that the Americans found so useful against Japan. The U.S. jets had inferior weaponry, and suffered from problems with production and parts. The U.S. resorted to using mainly the more maneuverable propeller driven fighters during the war, such as the P-51 Mustang which was carried over from World War II.


title: Dogfight

text: To combat the MiGs, the F-86 Sabre was put into production. The U.S. pilots had a number of major advantages over the Chinese, including the G-suit. Chinese fighters were often seen spinning off out of control during a hard turn because the pilot had lost consciousness. Other technological advantages included the radar-ranging gunsight and hydraulic controls. Colonel Harrison R. Thyng remarked:


title: Dogfight

text: Suddenly you go into a steep turn. Your mach drops off. The MiG turns with you, and you let him gradually creep up and outturn you. At the critical moment you reverse your turn. The hydraulic controls [of the F-86] work beautifully. The MiG cannot turn as readily as you and is slung out to the side. When you pop your speedbrakes, the MiG flashes by you. Quickly closing the brakes, you slide onto his tail and hammer him with your "50s".


title: Dogfight

text: The Chinese were very competent in a dogfight, and large swirling battles were fought in the skies over Korea. However, it was highly suspected by many U.S. pilots that some of the opponents they faced over Korea were in fact well-trained Soviet pilots, whom the Americans referred to as "hanchos", (a Japanese word, meaning "bosses"). Major Robinson Risner recalls,


title: Dogfight

text: Seeing one another about the same time, the MiG flight and my flight dropped [our extra fuel] tanks.. He was so low he was throwing up small rocks. I dropped down to get him, but to hit him I had to get down in his jet wash. He'd chop the throttle and throw out his speed brakes. I would coast up beside him, wingtip to wingtip. When it looked like I was going to overshoot him, I would roll over the top and come down on the other side of him. When I did, he'd go into a hard turn, pulling all the Gs he could. This guy was one fantastic pilot.


title: Dogfight

text: The war in the air, however, eventually came to a stalemate as fighting ceased between the two factions. Later after the fall of the Soviet Union, Soviet records showed that Russian pilots


title: Dogfight

text: were indeed in the air. Some at times in the fury of combat reverted to the Russian language over the radio.


title: Dogfight

text: The Vietnam War "was the first 'modern' air war" in which air-to-air missiles were the primary weapons during aerial combat, and was the only confrontation between the latest aerial and ground defense technologies between the Soviet Union and the United States. If U.S. air power could successfully conduct war against Soviet doctrine and equipment in the skies over North Vietnam, then it could expect to successfully operate against the Soviet Union during a massive war in Europe. Over the skies of North Vietnam, U.S. aircraft would be attacking the "most formidable and most heavily defended targets in the history of aerial warfare".


title: Dogfight

text: By this time, dogfighting techniques had fallen out of favor in U.S. training doctrines, as missiles were considered to be all that was necessary to shoot down the big bombers expected to be deployed by the Soviet Union. As a result, air combat methods known by fighter pilots since World War I became all but lost as veterans from WWII and Korea retired and didn't pass them on to succeeding generations. American fighter pilots would meet in the skies in secret to engage in mock combat to try to maintain some level of proficiency. It wasn't until TOPGUN was established for the Navy in 1969 and Red Flag was started for the Air Force in 1975 that pilots were formally trained in dogfighting again.


title: Dogfight

text: Both U.S. and Soviet-built jet "fighters" were primarily designed as interceptors: intercepting bomber groups, and then shooting them down with air-to-air missiles. Neither party had a separate designation for interceptor, though: just F – for fighter; A – for attack; and B – for bomber. (For the NATO aircraft) With possibly a few exceptions, such as the F-8 Crusader and the F-100 Super Sabre, which each mounted four 20 mm cannons, jets were not designed for dog fighting other jet aircraft. Soviet doctrine called for their interceptors to be strictly vectored towards their targets by "Ground Control Intercept" (GCI) operators. As a consequence, U.S. RF-101 Voodoo aircraft conducting reconnaissance missions, or F-102 Delta Daggers, F-104 Starfighters performing MiGCAP duties, and the strike aircraft themselves, such as F-105 Thunderchiefs, A-4 Skyhawks, A-6 Intruders, F-4 Phantoms and B-52's flying over North Vietnam were met by MiG-17s (or Chicom J-5s), MiG-19s (Chicom J-6s), and MiG-21s being vectored directly to them by GCI operators who worked in conjunction with surface-to-air missile (SAM) crews. U.S. aircraft which successfully made it through the NVAF MiGs were then confronted with the SAMs and AAA batteries.


title: Dogfight

text: This triad defense system of GCI-controlled MiGs, Missiles (SAMs), and AAA enabled the North Vietnamese MiGs to utilize their aircraft's design capabilities as their designers had intended, that of, in the vernacular of the time, making "one pass, and then hauling ass", which was, in practice, quickly firing at their targets and then speeding away. By 1967 the Soviets had supplied the NVAF with enough missile-firing MiG-21s to allow the North Vietnamese to routinely engage U.S. aircraft, and to rely less and less on their aged MiG-17s, although many North Vietnamese pilots still preferred the MiG-17s agility and easy maintenance. With the arrival of the additional MiG-21s, and by 1969 MiG-19s (J-6s) imported from China, engagements between U.S. and NVAF jets became generally divided into two arenas; MiG-21s engaged at higher altitudes, while MiG-17s and MiG-19s would try to give battle at lower altitudes where their cannons were more effective.


title: Dogfight

text: At the conclusion of the air war in 1973, U.S. airmen had downed 202 communist MiGs, including two downed by B-52 tail gunners from their quad .50 caliber machine guns; this at a cost of 90 U.S. aircraft to NVAF MiGs. The USAF claimed 137 MiGs while the USN/USMC brought down 65 in air-to-air combat. From these figures, the USAF had 40 gun kills, and the USN claimed eight cannon victories. This number approached parity with the NVAF MiG's 37 gun kill figures.


title: Dogfight

text: Approximately 612 radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow missiles were fired during the war, scoring 56 MiG kills, while 454 heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinders were launched achieving 81 aerial victories. During Operation Rolling Thunder 54 AIM-4 Falcon missiles were fired, obtaining five kills. By contrast, NVAF MiG-21s obtained 53 air-to-air kills with their AA-2 "Atoll" missiles, from an unknown number of launchings. At least three MiG-21s, and all of the MiG-17s and MiG-19s (J-6s) made the remaining 37 kills, from their 90 total, with their 23 mm, 30 mm and 37 mm cannons.


title: Dogfight

text: As part of the North Vietnamese triad system of defense, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) had become an ever-increasing threat. U.S Air Force Brigadier General Robin Olds describes a typical encounter with surface-to-air missiles, which during a period of time in Vietnam was referred to as either a "MiG day" or a "Sam day", this was a Sam day.


title: Dogfight

text: Here come the SAMs. The trick is seeing the launch. You can see the steam. It goes straight up, turns more level, then the booster drops off. If it maintains a relatively stable position, it's coming right for you and you're in trouble. You're eager to make a move but can't. If you dodge too fast it will turn and catch you; if you wait too late it will explode near enough to get you. What you do at the right moment is poke your nose down, go down as hard as you can, pull maybe three negative Gs at 550 knots and once it follows you down, you go up as hard as you can. It can't follow that and goes under.


title: Dogfight

text: "If you know a MiG-21 is in your area or you lose sight of one and want to find it again: Roll out wings level for 15 seconds, then look in your 6 o'clock about 1.5 miles. It will be there. Probably you'll see mach 2 Atoll (air-to-air missile) smoke trail first before you see the MiG. But remember that's where the MiG-21 is! Just ask one of the 20 aircrews shot down during Linebacker that never knew they were under attack."


title: Dogfight

text: The Arab–Israeli conflicts were a series of wars between the country of Israel and its surrounding Arab neighbors. Those that involved dogfighting occurred between 1948 and 1985. The wars escalated on May 14, 1948, the day Israel declared its sovereignty from Britain. The War of Independence was followed by the Suez-Sinai War in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and the First Lebanon War in 1982.


title: Dogfight

text: The wars began with both sides using propeller planes, such as Spitfires, Avia S-199s, and P-51s, then progressed to older jets like MiG-15s, Dassault Mysteres and Dassault Mirages. In the latter wars dogfighting ensued between modern aircraft, like F-15s and F-16s against MiG-21s and MiG-25s. Although usually outnumbered, the Israelis managed to defeat the air forces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in dogfights, often achieving kill ratios ranging from 10:1 to over 20:1, which is usually attributed to better training of the Israeli pilots and a technological advantage.


title: Dogfight

text: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 saw the Indian and Pakistani Air Forces engaged in large-scale aerial combat against each other for the first time since the independence of Pakistan in 1947. The war took place during the course of September 1965 and saw both air forces conduct defensive and offensive operations over Indian and Pakistani airspace. The aerial war saw both sides conducting thousands of sorties in a single month. Both sides claimed victory in the air war; India claimed to have destroyed 73 enemy aircraft and lost 35 of its own while Pakistan claimed to have destroyed 104 aircraft against its own losses of 19. Despite the intense fighting,India was able to shoot down around 18 PAF jets while losing 14 jets. Neutral sources mention India losing 75 and Pakistan lost 20 jets. In the first stage of War, 4 Indian Vampire Fighters were shot down by PAF F-86s on 1 September, while from Indian side, Indian Sqn. Ldr. Trevor Keeler with his Gnat took the first hit on 3 September 1965 by downing a Pakistani F-86 which got crashed in an uncontrollable dive. IAF Flt. Lt.V S Pathania took the first kill by his Gnat on 4 September 1965 by downing the Pakistani F-86 of Flt. Lt Bhatt who escaped to safe territory by parachute. PAF Sqn. Ldr. Muhammad Mahmood Alam, became highest flying ace by 5 confirmed and 4 probable kills but however it was later debunked by PAF Air Commodore S. Sajad Haider. PAF Sqn. Ldr. Sarfraz Rafiqui who shot down 3 and Flt. Lt. Yunus were shot down in Halwara, Indian air base by fresh pilots with IAF Hawker Hunter Mk. 56. One Indian Gnat landed in Pakistan airbase accidentally due low on fuel and disoriented, now exhibited as war trophy in Pakistan Air Force Museum. After the war, PAF's loss rate was 17 percent of its front line strength, while India's losses amounted to less than 10 per cent.


title: Dogfight

text: By late 1971, the intensification of the independence movement in erstwhile East Pakistan led to the Bangladesh Liberation War between India and Pakistan. On November 22, 1971, 10 days before the start of a full-scale war, four PAF F-86 Sabre jets attacked Indian and Mukti Bahini positions at Garibpur, near the international border. Two of the four PAF Sabres were shot down and one damaged by the IAF's Folland Gnats. On December 3, India formally declared war against Pakistan following massive preemptive strikes by the PAF against Indian Air Force installations in Srinagar, Ambala, Sirsa, Halwara and Jodhpur. However, the IAF did not suffer significantly because the leadership had anticipated such a move and precautions were taken. The Indian Air Force was quick to respond to Pakistani air strikes, following which the PAF carried out mostly defensive sorties.


title: Dogfight

text: Within the first two weeks, the IAF had carried out almost 12,000 sorties over East Pakistan and also provided close air support to the advancing Indian Army. IAF also assisted the Indian Navy in its operations against the Pakistani Navy and Maritime Security Agency in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. On the western front, the IAF destroyed more than 20 Pakistani tanks, four APCs and a supply train during the Battle of Longewala. The IAF undertook strategic bombing of West Pakistan by carrying out raids on oil installations in Karachi, the Mangla Dam and a gas plant in Sindh. A similar strategy was also deployed in East Pakistan, and, as the IAF achieved complete air superiority on the eastern front, the ordnance factories, runways, and other vital areas of East Pakistan were severely damaged. By the time the Pakistani forces surrendered, the IAF had destroyed 94 PAF aircraft.


title: Dogfight

text: The IAF was able to conduct a wide range of missions – troop support; air combat; deep penetration strikes; para-dropping behind enemy lines; feints to draw enemy fighters away from the actual target; bombing; and reconnaissance. In contrast, the Pakistan Air Force, which was solely focused on air combat, was blown out of the subcontinent's skies within the first week of the war. Those PAF aircraft that survived took refuge at Iranian air bases or in concrete bunkers, refusing to offer a fight. Hostilities officially ended at 14:30 GMT on December 17, after the fall of Dacca on December 15. India claimed large gains of territory in West Pakistan (although pre-war boundaries were recognised after the war), and the independence of Pakistan's East wing as Bangladesh was confirmed. The IAF had flown over 16,000 sorties on both East and West fronts; including sorties by transport aircraft and helicopters. while the PAF flew about 30 and 2,840. More than 80 percent of the IAF's sorties were close-support and interdiction, and according to neutral assessments about 45 IAF aircraft were lost while, Pakistan lost 75 aircraft. Not including any F-6s, Mirage IIIs, or the six Jordanian F-104s which failed to return to their donors. But the imbalance in air losses was explained by the IAF's considerably higher sortie rate, and its emphasis on ground-attack missions. On the ground Pakistan suffered most, with 9,000 killed and 25,000 wounded while India lost 3,000 dead and 12,000 wounded. The loss of armoured vehicles was similarly imbalanced. This represented a major defeat for Pakistan. Towards the end of the war, IAF's transport planes dropped leaflets over Dhaka urging the Pakistani forces to surrender, demoralising Pakistani troops in East Pakistan.


title: Dogfight

text: On August 19, 1981, two Grumman F-14 Tomcats of the V-84 Jolly Rogers engaged two Libyan Air Force Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter's over the Gulf of Sidra. One Su-22 opened fire on the F-14 but missed. The F-14's destroyed the Su-22 Fitters using AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, though both pilots of the destroyed Su-22 planes ejected.


title: Dogfight

text: Later, on January 4, 1989, a similar engagement occurred between two F-14 Tomcats and MiG-23 Floggers.


title: Dogfight

text: The Falklands War began on April 2, 1982, when Argentina invaded the Falkland islands, and then the island of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which were small disputed dependencies. Because Britain had no military bases nearby and few aircraft carriers, the Argentinians did not expect a response from Britain. On April 5, the British sent carriers to the Falklands with Sea Harrier 'Jump-jets' on board. The Harrier was originally designed as a ground-attack plane, and was not equipped for dogfighting, so the aircraft had to undergo many modifications and the pilots given extra training.


title: Dogfight

text: The Argentinians had superior numbers, but their forces mainly consisted of older jets from the 1960s, such as Dassault Mirage IIIs and Israeli Daggers. The Argentinians were also handicapped by the long distance from mainland airfields and a lack of refuelling tankers. Neither side was ready for war, but both prepared all through April as diplomacy failed. The fighting started on May 1, and was to become the largest naval and air conflict since World War II. By the end of the war, Argentina lost 20 fighters in dogfights, while Britain lost two Sea Harrier to ground fire. The Americans supplied late model Sidewinder missiles to the British; this and the analysis of French Mirage combat tactics made the difference. As of March 2019 David Morgan was the last British pilot to have fought a dogfight when he downed two Argentinian jets on June 8, 1982.


title: Dogfight

text: In the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988, many dogfights occurred between the Iranian Air Force (IRIAF) and Iraqi Air Force. During the early years of the war, the IRIAF enjoyed air superiority (see for example Operation Sultan 10 and Operation Morvarid); however, by the end of the war, the Iranian Air Force had lost its superiority due to their increasingly outdated equipment and the lack of spare parts for their US-made aircraft. Iraq, meanwhile, continued to introduce new French and Soviet weapons into its air force.


title: Dogfight

text: The Iran–Iraq War also saw the worlds only confirmed helicopter dogfights, with Iranian Army Aviation's AH-1J Internationals (usually the TOW-capable ones) entering combat mostly against Iraqi Army Air Corps' Mil Mi-24 Hind gunships and HOT-armed Aérospatiale Gazelles. The Hinds proved faster and more robust, while the AH-1Js were more agile. The results of the skirmishes are disputed. There were also engagements between Iranian AH-1Js and Iraqi fixed-wing aircraft: using their 20 mm cannon, the AH-1Js scored three confirmed kills against MiG-21s, claimed an Su-20, and shared in the destruction of a MiG-23.


title: Dogfight

text: In the Gulf War of 1990–91, dogfighting once again proved its usefulness when the Coalition Air Force had to face off against the Iraqi Air Force, which at the time was the fifth largest in the world. By the second day of the war, the Coalition achieved air superiority. Many dogfights occurred during the short conflict, often involving many planes. By the end of January, 1991, the term "furball" became a popular word to describe the hectic situation of many dogfights, occurring at the same time within the same relatively small airspace. By the end of the war, the U.S. claimed 39 Iraqi aircraft in air-to-air victories to the loss of only one F/A-18. Of the 39 victories, 36 were taken by F-15 Eagles.


title: Dogfight

text: During the Balkans conflict, in 1999 (the Kosovo War), five MiG-29s of the Yugoslav Air Force were shot down in dogfights with NATO aircraft. The first was on March 24, by a Dutch F-16AM Falcon, and two were downed on the same night by U.S. F-15s. A day later, two more MiG-29s were shot down by an F-16 and F-15.


title: Dogfight

text: The war became the first to see 4th-generation jet fighters battle with each other. Most of the losses to Eritrean MiG-29s were caused by dogfights with Ethiopian Su-27s.


title: Dogfight

text: A dogfight between Indian and Pakistani jets took place on 27 February 2019, when Pakistani Dassault Mirage Vs, Dassault Mirage IIIs and JF-17 Thunders performed airstrikes near Indian military installations at Indian Administered Kashmir in retaliation to the Balakot Airstrike, which was carried out by the IAF on 26 February 2019.


title: Dogfight

text: In the ensuing dogfight, an Indian MiG-21 Bison and an Su-30MKI were shot down by Pakistani F-16s after they entered Pakistani airspace across the Line of Control.


title: Dogfight

text: The Russo-Ukrainian War became in 2022 the first conflict in two decades to feature large-scale aerial warfare, including dogfights. Despite this, dogfights still remain rare, with most aircraft losses being due to the use of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, guided missiles, and other such weapons.


title: The Souvenir

text: The Souvenir is a 2019 drama film written and directed by Joanna Hogg. A semi-autobiographical account of Hogg's experiences at film school, it stars Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke and Tilda Swinton. "The Souvenir" had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2019, and was released in the US on May 17, 2019 by A24, and in the UK on August 30, 2019, by Curzon Artificial Eye. It received critical acclaim.