title: Rakhine State

text: The general state of health care in Myanmar is poor. The military government spends anywhere from 0.5% to 3% of the country's GDP on health care, consistently ranking among the lowest in the world. Although health care is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals lack many of the basic facilities and equipment. In general, the health care infrastructure outside of Yangon and Mandalay is extremely poor but is especially bad in remote areas like Rakhine State. The entire Rakhine State has fewer hospital beds than the Yangon General Hospital. The following is a summary of the public health care system in the state.


title: Occupied

text: With a budget of 90 million kr (US$11 million), the series is the most expensive Norwegian production to date and has been sold to the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Serbia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, and Canada. It is also streamed by Netflix in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Ireland, the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Canada, Belgium, Italy, South Africa and the Netherlands.


title: Occupied

text: The series depicts a fictional near future in which, due to catastrophic environmental events, Norway's Prime Minister has stopped the country's oil and gas production. Russia, with support from the European Union, occupies Norway to restore its oil and gas production, in response to a Europe-wide energy crisis.


title: Occupied

text: In the near future, Middle East turmoil and the US withdrawal from NATO triggers an energy crisis. A catastrophic hurricane fueled by climate change devastates Norway, killing 700–800 people and causing untold physical and economic damage. The Norwegian (fictitious) green party Ny Kraft is swept to power in response, and idealistic prime minister Jesper Berg plans to develop thorium-based nuclear power as a viable alternative to oil. To this end, Berg cuts off all fossil fuel production, intensifying the energy crisis in the continent. The European Union, in desperation, acquiesces to a Russian-led invasion of Norway.


title: Occupied

text: Berg attends the inauguration of the first thorium plant, proclaiming the end of fossil fuels. As he leaves the event, Russian special forces kidnap Berg and fly him by helicopter to a forest. There, via video chat, EU Commissioner Pierre Anselme demands that he restart Norwegian oil production or face a full-scale invasion. Berg refuses and attempts to escape upon seeing a civilian approach the helicopter. The soldiers shoot the man, forcing Berg to agree to the EU's demands. Berg is released and is picked up by his bodyguard, Martin Djupvik, who has been pursuing the helicopter. To conceal the nature of the occupation, Berg spins the presence of the Russians as a temporary "energy partnership". This cover story unravels as a series of events complicates Norwegian–Russian interactions over the ensuing months while Berg's political position disintegrates as he tries to avoid bloodshed and war.


title: Occupied

text: At a ceremony on Constitution Day, a member of the Royal Guard named Stefan Christensen attempts to assassinate Russian ambassador Irina Sidorova, but is thwarted by Djupvik. He is thanked by the ambassador after the event, and becomes an important player in relations between the Norwegian government and Russian embassy. A Norwegian military unit abducts two Russian officials who had been urging the Commander of the Royal Guard, Harald Vold, to surrender himself to Russian custody on suspicion of hatching the assassination plot, instigating a hostage situation with the demands being Christensen's release. Djupvik assists in resolving the situation, and afterwards is assigned by Police Security Service chief Wenche Arnesen to work on protecting Russian officials.


title: Occupied

text: Bente Norum, who owns a restaurant opposite the Russian embassy in Oslo, becomes increasingly involved with the Russians, who become her primary customers. This does not sit well with her husband Thomas Eriksen, a journalist who is outspoken against the Russian presence in Norway. Their marriage becomes strained and Bente develops a relationship with a Russian embassy official named Nikolai.


title: Occupied

text: When a Russian agent is killed in a hit and run in front of the embassy, the Russian government demands that Norway extradite the driver, a suspected Chechen terrorist named Elbek Musajev. Djupvik discovers the death was an accident caused by the man's son Iljas rather than a deliberate attack. After being sentenced to two years prison, Elbek commits suicide to avoid being deported to Russia. Iljas, blaming Djupvik for his father's death, meets Christensen, and the two plot vengeance against the Russians and the Norwegian government who accommodate them. They proceed to recruit Vold and a nationalist academic, Eivind Birkeland, and form the rebel group Free Norway ("").


title: Occupied

text: Free Norway's first action is to detonate a bomb at the PST headquarters, injuring Djupvik. Thomas Eriksen is contacted by Christensen, who meets him and threatens his family, accusing them of being Russian sympathisers. A gas production facility in Viksund is then attacked, killing many Russian workers and causing the Russians to cancel their planned withdrawal from Norway. Tensions increase further as Russian troops enter Finnmark and a Russian naval fleet conducts exercises off the coast of northern Norway; Eriksen is found dead after going to investigate. Prime Minister Berg asks the EU to protect Norway's sovereignty, but the EU fails to act decisively.


title: Occupied

text: PST chief Arnesen secretly contacts and assists Free Norway after discovering she has a terminal brain tumor. The group begins a recruitment drive of retired military personnel and prisoners. Berg has in the meantime set up a caretaker government under the orders of the King of Norway after losing a no-confidence motion from his own party. After discovering that Russian sleeper agents are entering the country illegally, Berg begins interning and deporting them back to Russia. In response, Russian "terrorists" seemingly armed with suicide vests storm Berg's office and hold him hostage. Berg is rescued and evacuated to the US embassy, setting up a government in internal exile. It emerges that the oil refinery attack was actually a false flag attack staged by the Russian government as a justification to extend their presence in Norway. When Bente Norum's daughter, Maja Norum, discovers evidence that the Russian military killed Eriksen, Bente expels Russian staff members from her restaurant in retaliation. After her stepson Petter becomes involved in Free Norway's activities, she agrees to provide the group information if he is kept out of it.


title: Occupied

text: Berg, taking sanctuary in the US ambassador's residence, takes every opportunity to attempt to try and involve the United States in dislodging the Russians, but the Americans refuse involvement. Berg attempts to fly Russian internees to Svalbard, but the plane is intercepted by Russian fighter jets and forced to turn back. Events spiral further when, after Berg calls on the public to resist the Russian occupation in a public broadcast, Free Norway kidnaps Sidorova and one of her bodyguards. They execute the latter live over the internet and claim that they will do the same to Sidorova if Russia does not withdraw from Norway within 24 hours. In response, Russian special forces seize Oslo Airport and fly several military officials into Norway. Berg conducts a CNN interview denouncing Free Norway and again calling on the US to assist Norway; this prompts the US ambassador to mildly poison Berg's food, requiring him to be transported to hospital, off the embassy grounds. Djupvik and Bø track down and rescue Sidorova, and Iljas Musajev is killed by Djupvik in the process. Assisted by Bente Norum, Free Norway assassinate a high-ranking Russian general and kill several Russian soldiers in front of the Russian embassy. Bente sells her restaurant and leaves after being warned by Nikolai that he can no longer protect her.


title: Occupied

text: The assassination is taken as an act of war, and Russian troops begin crossing the border into Norway. After her health deteriorates and she is told she can no longer work, Arnesen records and releases a video revealing her defection and claiming she is going into hiding as the leader of Free Norway. She then commits suicide at a church, and her body is cremated by the priest. Unaware of her death, Djupvik and Russian authorities seek to locate her. Meanwhile, Berg is kidnapped and taken via helicopter to a Free Norway resistance camp, where he is informed of Arnesen's defection and the escalation of the conflict. Upon landing, he is welcomed by Vold and asked if he is ready to fight for his country.


title: Occupied

text: After being kidnapped, Berg is proclaimed as the new leader of Free Norway, and the group carries out a guerrilla campaign against the occupation, attacking both Russian and Norwegian forces and staging terror attacks throughout the country, nearly plummeting the country into a civil war. Six months later, however, the insurgents have lost much of their strength due to heavy Russian military and Norwegian police action. Berg is thus sent into exile in neighboring Sweden, which had supported the initial Russian invasion as a member of the EU. Berg's replacement as prime minister, fellow party member Anders Knudsen, proves unable to handle the pressure and resigns. Following his exile to Sweden, Berg attempts to form a parallel government-in-exile. While acting as a go-between for Berg and the leaders of Norway's parliament, the Storting, his political adviser and lover Anita Rygh sees her political role marginalized. Rygh instead recommends to the majority party that they form a new government. The president of the Storting refuses, but offers her the prime ministerial position instead. She accepts, severing her ties with Berg.


title: Occupied

text: A Norwegian Coast Guard officer approaches Berg with news that the Russians are installing cruise missile launchers on the oil installation of Melkøya in northern Norway. From his position in Sweden, Berg contacts the insurgents and orders them to get photographic evidence. A platoon of guardsmen independently confronts members of a Russian private military company stationed there under the guise of an inspection. One of the guardsmen, a naturalized Somali immigrant named Faisal Abdi, transmits a video of the missiles, but a gunfight breaks out and the guardsmen are captured and brought to a Russian prison. The leader of the expedition dies after being hit by gunfire. The return of the soldiers becomes a source of tension between both nations and Rygh's first true test as prime minister.


title: Occupied

text: Since Russians were killed in the incident, the Russian authorities are unwilling to return the soldiers to Norway. Djupvik's wife Hilde drafts a plan to have them tried in Norway with a Russian lay judge presiding; the Russians agree, and all of the soldiers are found guilty and given the maximum sentence (21 years imprisonment). Faisal's girlfriend Frida Engø and her hacker friend Leon Tangen launch Free Our Soldiers (FOS), a peaceful protest group demanding the release of the soldiers.


title: Occupied

text: Bente Norum has opened a hotel with a Russian business partner named Zoya. As with the restaurant, this venue is popular among Russians and becomes a profitable venture. When a powerful Russian oligarch, Konstantin Minnikov, stays at the hotel, Norum is approached by a resistance agent who asks she copy the contents of Minnikov's phone and send it to them. She initially declines, but after discovering that Minnikov has secretly bought out Zoya's share of the hotel, she does so. Minnikov's daughter Nadja replaces Zoya as Norum's business partner, and befriends Norum's daughter Maja. Meanwhile, Nikolai has moved in with Norum and Maja.


title: Occupied

text: Djupvik, now head of the PST, continues to walk a fine line between allegiances. After spending months trying to track down Arnesen, he interviews the priest at the church, who admits she has been dead the entire time. Having located the Free Norway camp, the Norwegian police capture Vold and other insurgents. The Security Service discovers that Berg is using the video game "DayZ" to communicate with the Free Norway insurgents. When they discover proof that he ordered the illegal mission in Melkøya, a warrant is issued for his arrest. He flees in the night, narrowly escaping capture, and makes his way to Poland, where he is sheltered by Ukrainian separatists. He meets a reporter from Germany's "Stern" magazine and leaks information damaging to Rygh. Norwegian and Polish authorities track him down and arrange his delivery in exchange for payment, but the separatists fake Berg's execution and he again escapes. He seeks refuge in Paris with his estranged wife Astrid and her new partner, a human rights lawyer named Jérôme. French police arrest Berg, but Jérôme takes his case to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that his life would be at risk if he was extradited to Russia. The court rules in Berg's favour and orders his release.


title: Occupied

text: After her mother voices her despair at the continuing violence, Rygh offers the remaining insurgents amnesty in exchange for their turning in their weapons. Vold agrees and announces the end of violent resistance, launching the Liberation Party as the peaceful political successor of Free Norway. Christensen refuses to lay down his arms, and becomes a lone wolf. He kidnaps Djupvik's daughter Andrea and demands freedom for the soldiers in exchange for her return, prompting condemnation from FOS. Andrea is rescued by Norwegian police, while Russian forces capture Christensen. They invite Djupvik to the facility where he is held. Djupvik interrogates him to find out if he was working alone, and determines that he was. Christensen taunts him, saying he regrets not killing Andrea. Djupvik then shoots and kills him.


title: Occupied

text: Berg uncovers corruption in the finances of French EU commissioner Anselme, and uses his wife's influence to pressure him to help the Norwegian cause. He resigns from the Commission and is replaced by a Polish politician who puts forward a motion demanding Russian withdrawal from Norway.


title: Occupied

text: Minnikov discovers that Norum has been spying on him. When he confronts her, she accidentally kills him by pushing him out a window. Panicked, she calls Nikolai, who disposes of the body. The resistance find out about this and blackmail Norum, demanding she reschedule a hotel event which Sidorova and other powerful Russians will attend. After learning that Zoya has been blamed for the murder, Norum tries to turn herself in to the police, only to realise that the resistance agent works there and will not allow her to confess. She meets Djupvik and gives him information on the activities of the rebels. He informs Sidorova of the resistance's plans, which they assume to be an assassination plot against her. Nikolai overhears, and leaves Norum after realising she has been helping the resistance. She sells her share of the hotel to Nadja and seeks to emigrate to Russia with Maja. Hilde leaves Djupvik with Andrea after learning he killed Christensen.


title: Occupied

text: After being released, Berg arranges a voyage by sea to return to Norway, with a group of supportive Eastern European politicians aboard to denounce the Russian intervention. However, his allies leave when Rygh's government threatens to cut off the energy supply to Europe. In response, Berg recruits FOS developer Leon to hack the Russian anti-aircraft defence system, and stages a false flag attack, using a Russian missile to shoot down a Finnish Air Force fighter jet. This causes the EU to demand an immediate Russian withdrawal from Norway; Sidorova and the Russian government agree to withdraw from Norway if Rygh remains as prime minister to guarantee cordial relations between the two countries.


title: Occupied

text: Rygh pardons Faisal and the other soldiers in an attempt to rob Berg of political capital. After their release, Leon realises his actions led to the missile attack. At Frida's house, he raises his doubts about the resistance with Faisal, who states he believes they need to act against the Russian occupation. The house is then attacked by resistance soldiers, who kill Leon to ensure he cannot expose the truth about the missile strike. However, he manages to tell Frida shortly before his death. Separated from Faisal, she escapes and informs Rygh. When Berg's ship enters Norwegian waters, she orders the Navy to detain him, but they refuse. Djupvik realises the plot with Norum's hotel was a diversion, and that a coup d'état led by Vold is imminent.


title: Occupied

text: With Djupvik's help, Rygh evades the Norwegian military as they begin occupying Oslo. She boards Berg's ship, where she threatens him with proof that he staged the missile attack. He agrees to implement her peace deal with Russia if he is placed in charge of the Norwegian armed forces. They spin Vold's coup as a temporary measure to maintain order during the crisis, and return to Norwegian shores together. Under orders from Berg, the military escorts Vold out of the prime minister's office, and he meets with Faisal, to whom he gives a gun. Stepping ashore at Oslo, Berg is greeted by an adoring crowd. Holding a joint speech with Rygh, he proclaims her as his official successor, and she announces the imminent end of the Russian occupation. As she is concluding her speech, she is shot by Faisal. Later that night, a distraught Berg returns to the prime minister's office, facing an uncertain future.


title: Occupied

text: After Rygh's assassination, Berg is tasked with forming a new government, and takes Grete Sundby as his new State Secretary. He reluctantly agrees to ratify the peace treaty forged between Rygh and the Russian government, which entails resuming oil and gas production to Europe. During the re-opening ceremony of the Melkøya facility, a gas explosion kills 56 people. Berg, who was attending the event, narrowly escapes unharmed. He begins working on a register of all Russians living in Norway, claiming he seeks to protect them from discrimination; however, Hilde discovers evidence that the government plans to deport all Russians in the country.


title: Occupied

text: Sidorova has been removed as ambassador to Norway by the Russian government, who claim it is due to her unpopularity with the Norwegian population. However, she believes it is due to her relationship with another woman, Lyubov Sorokina. On a whim, Lyubov tells the press she believes the Melkøya explosion was a Russian attack. Fearing for their safety, Sidorova fakes a Russian assassination attempt against herself to prevent deportation to Russia.


title: Occupied

text: Sundby admits to Berg that Parliament collaborated with the Russian government during the occupation, including a demand to grant Russian residents citizenship. Berg has Sidorova provide evidence for this in exchange for preventing her deportation to Russia. He convinces the Supreme Court to dissolve Parliament using powers granted by a state of emergency, scheduling elections for September. Most of the members of parliament are arrested on charges of treason and collaboration. Berg revokes the citizenships of Russian residents, forcing them to apply for residency or face deportation. He personally orders the deportation of Lyubov, hoping to force Sidorova to leave the country to be with her. Hilde helps overturn the mass deportation of Russians, allowing them to return to Norway, but Lyubov is detained at the airport in Moscow. Sidorova arranges for Lyubov to be smuggled out of Russia through Georgia; they cross the border without incident, but Lyubov undergoes an operation in Tbilisi where a small ampoule of poison is implanted in her body. Sidorova is contacted by a Russian official, who tells her that the ampoule is remote-controlled and that Lyubov will be killed if Sidorova is disloyal to Russia again.


title: Occupied

text: Norum and Maja have moved to Moscow. She seeks to buy a share in a restaurant owned by businessman Igor Sobol.


title: Occupied

text: In response to a border skirmish instigated by Norwegian soldiers, the EU President pressures Berg to disarm border patrols until EU peacekeeping forces withdraw. Under orders from Vold, a group of soldiers leads an attack against EU peacekeepers at a border post, killing several. Berg confronts Vold at the occupied post, but Vold refuses to order the soldiers to stand down. Berg negotiates their surrender. After leaving the occupied border post with Berg, Djupvik decides to attend Andrea's soccer game rather than go back to work. Shortly after Ingrid drops him off, the car explodes, killing her. Djupvik subsequently resigns from the PST.


title: Occupied

text: During a presentation to the EU energy commission on Norway's oil software development, a virus crashes the system. Berg visits Njord, an environmental organisation run by Marie Elvestad which researches and develops renewable energy solutions. After learning that the virus was developed by a Njord engineer and cannot be removed, he agrees to promote the construction of hydroelectric dams to power Europe renewably rather than with oil. He also begin planning to convert Norway's offshore oil drilling platforms into wind power generators, and offers Elvestad the position of Climate Minister if he wins the upcoming election. At a press conference at a hydroelectric plant, a journalist tells Berg that one of the contractors, Stellux, previously trained Russian oil workers. Berg subsequently cancels the contract to avoid backlash. He seeks a scapegoat to direct negative press away from himself, and chooses Bente Norum, who is accused of profiting from the occupation through the sale of her hotel. The government freezes her assets. As a result, she is unable to buy a stake in Sobol's restaurant, and agrees to become his business advisor instead.


title: Occupied

text: Sundby visits her family in London. Her son Fritjof has stock in Stellux, and she fears he may be endangered by the anti-profiteering campaign in Norway. Berg convinces him to return to Norway and denounce the company in the media. While answering questions about his financial dealings at the airport in Norway, he is splashed in the face with acid by a man involved in the #BrandThem movement, which seeks to punish those perceived as profiteers and collaborators with the Russian occupation. Hilde speaks out against them after being told that the police refuse to investigate attacks against Russians; she seeks police protection for a Russian trade unionist named Sokolov. While on a walk, she narrowly avoids being splashed with acid, and suffers burns to her shoulder. Djupvik becomes increasingly worried about her safety, and arranges a trip to Washington D.C., where Hilde has distant family.


title: Occupied

text: Petter Bjørnstad, a former athlete turned politician, offers Hilde a position as spokeswoman for justice in his Unified Party. That night, Sokolov's home is set alight and his son is severely burned. Hilde learns that he did not have police protection despite her request. She cancels the trip to D.C., taking up Bjørnstad's offer and campaigning against violence. While campaigning, she is approached by Sokolov, who needs money to pay for his son's medical treatment. Djupvik sees a man filming them talk, and finds the footage covertly passed on to Sidorova. He breaks into her home and steals a hard drive containing encrypted emails sent between Norway and Moscow.


title: Occupied

text: In the lead-up to the election, Vold's Liberation Party is leading in the polls. Berg unsuccessfully attempts to associate him with the violent #BrandThem attackers, accusing him of inciting violence in Norway. While filming a campaign video, Vold is sprayed in the face by a makeshift acid launcher. Berg realises his campaign advisor arranged the attack, but publicly blames Russia. Three months later, the acid attack has left Vold unable to speak and ended his political career. With a week remaining in the election campaign, Berg has a strong lead in the polls over Bjørnstad's Unified Party, which has become the primary opposition. Vold accuses Berg of cooperating with Russia in the acid attack.


title: Occupied

text: Sidorova and Lyubov are reunited and co-found an LGBT rights organisation named Love Without Limits to campaign against homophobia. However, Sidorova secretly uses it as a front to spread Russian influence in Europe. Lyubov has an ultrasound, revealing the poison ampoule; Sidorova tells her what it is, but refuses to explain why it was inserted. She is contacted by Russian authorities, who tell her the ampoule will only be removed if she ensures Berg loses the election.


title: Occupied

text: In Moscow, Sobol seeks to sway the Norwegian election in Bjørnstad's favour in order to secure a lucrative contract. Norum helps coordinate the spread of a rumour that Berg was responsible for the assassination of Anita Rygh. The PST traces it back to her; Sundby and Berg contact her, and she offers to reveal the name of her source if Berg meets her personally in Svalbard and negotiates the release of her financial assets. Sobol wants to record the meeting in order to get more material to damage Berg's chances of re-election. As Norum travels to the airport, her daughter Maja attempts suicide. Sobol arranges for both Maja and her doctors to accompany Norum to Svalbard; there, Maja tells Norum she feels lonely and neglected, and Norum says she regrets moving to Russia. At the meeting with Berg, Norum sabotages Sobol's attempt to record their conversation, and tells Berg she will provide the name of her source only if Berg helps her move Maja back to Norway. She writes a name on Maja's back and tells her only to show it to Berg. Just before they leave Svalbard, Norwegian police take Maja, claiming she has been subject to gross child neglect. Norum returns to Moscow without her. At the police station, she secretly shows Berg the name.


title: Occupied

text: Maja tells Sundby about the deal between Berg and her mother. After reading the name and realising that Vold was Norum's source, Sundby visits his home and finds him dead. She calls Berg and questions him about Vold's death, but he claims to be unaware. She then resigns as state secretary and publicly denounces him. During a debate two days before the election, Bjørnstad grills Berg about Sundby's defection and Rygh's assassination. While speaking, Berg has a medical episode and collapses.


title: Occupied

text: Sobol learns of Vold's death and becomes suspicious of Norum. He tortures Nikolai to convince her to confess, and arranges for her to travel to Norway and testify against Berg regarding Vold's death and Rygh's assassination. Djupvik realises that Sidorova has been collecting information to blackmail Hilde, and that she and Norum have been communicating. He confronts her at the airport after she testifies, demanding a key to access the contents of the stolen hard drive. After returning to Moscow, she sends him the key from Sobol's phone. At a dinner in Moscow, she frames Sobol for leaking the information to Djupvik, telling the Russian deputy prime minister he is a spy. Sobol is killed and Norum takes over ownership of his restaurant, but Maja is still in Norway.


title: Occupied

text: On election day, Berg is hounded about Rygh by the press. On the way to cast his vote, he tells his advisor he feels responsible for Rygh's death. While in the bathroom, he escapes his security detail and runs away. That night, exit polls declare Bjørnstad the winner of the election. Djupvik meets Hilde at the Unified Party function, warning her about Sidorova. He gives her tickets to Washington D.C. and distracts Sidorova, who is at the event, to give Hilde time to escape, and is taken into Russian custody. Russian authorities tell Sidorova she must locate Hilde before the ampoule will be removed from Lyubov. Sidorova tracks and contacts Hilde, who asks to see Djupvik. Sidorova initiates a Skype call between them, which Russian authorities use to track Hilde's location. Djupvik tells her to end the call, then kills himself with a bodyguard's gun. Hilde flees into hiding. Later, Lyubov gives birth, causing the ampoule to burst. The baby is healthy, but Lyubov is sent to intensive care.


title: Occupied

text: A week later, Berg has been missing since election day, and Bjørnstad is sworn in as Prime Minister. Elvestad tracks Berg to his childhood home, and together they return to Njord. The group's hackers trigger a city-wide power outage in Moscow. They flee into hiding while Berg stays behind, broadcasting a message claiming the blackouts will continue daily until Russia pays compensation for its carbon emissions. He calls for a global eco-terrorist campaign against polluting governments.


title: Occupied

text: Jo Nesbø wrote the first episodes in 2008, and the series, planned to be produced for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), received a million production grant from the Norwegian Film Institute in April 2013. After four years of planning, disagreements over the progress led NRK to withdraw from the project; TV2 took over in October 2013.


title: Occupied

text: Erik Skjoldbjærg told NPR's Ari Shapiro that "any kind of good fiction feeds off the reality of some situation. In fact we were looking at a number of different conflicts. One was the invasion of Iraq in 2003."


title: Occupied

text: The series premiered in Norway on TV2 on 5 October 2015, and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 13 January 2016 on Sky Arts in HD. The series was added to the Netflix streaming service, in multiple countries, as of 20 January 2016. The series premiered on Pivot TV in the United States on 5 May 2016 and on the Canadian public television stations TVOntario and Knowledge Network. TVOntario premiered the show on 11 September 2016 and Knowledge Network broadcast the show beginning 26 June 2020. In Poland, the series broadcasts on Ale Kino+.


title: Occupied

text: "The Daily Telegraph"s cultural reviewer Gerard O'Donovan wrote of "Occupied" that the series' innovation more than made up for any lack of plausibility, citing the interesting historical, geopolitical interplay between Norway and Russia as fascinating. O'Donovan went on to praise the first episode, saying, "the tense plotting and a pace sufficiently frenetic to carry all but the most curmudgeonly along."


title: Occupied

text: "It is certainly a shame that, in the year of the 70th anniversary of the victory in World War II, the authors have seemingly forgotten the Soviet Army's heroic contribution to the liberation of northern Norway from Nazi occupiers, decided, in the worst traditions of the Cold War, to scare Norwegian spectators with the nonexistent threat from the east." The Russian embassy had been informed in an early stage of the work on the series.


title: Occupied

text: The circumstances depicted in "Occupied" have been compared to Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 and more recently to the Russian threats toward Ukraine before the 2022 war.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS; formerly known as Division I-AA), the lower of two levels of Division I football competition. The OVC has 10 members, six of which compete in football in the conference.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: The Ohio Valley Conference can trace its roots to 1941 when Murray State athletic director Roy Stewart, Eastern Kentucky athletic director Charles "Turkey" Hughes, and Western Kentucky public relations director Kelly Thompson first formulated the idea of establishing a regional athletics conference. The plan was put on hold due to World War II, but it was resurrected after the conclusion of the war. In 1948, the three schools joined with Louisville, Morehead State, and Evansville to form the Ohio Valley Conference. While many collegiate conferences are struggling today with the question of whether their policies and rules should be determined by the athletic departments or by the institutional heads, from the very beginning, the OVC has been run by the presidents of its member schools.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: Historically, the OVC was a pioneer in racial desegregation, with Morehead State signing the conference's first Black athlete, Marshall Banks, in 1958. The rest of the OVC soon followed in Morehead State's wake. From 1986 to 2018, the OVC was unique among NCAA Division I conferences in that it included one historically Black university, Tennessee State University, in a conference that otherwise consists of institutions that are not traditionally Black. During this period, every other HBCU in NCAA Division I belonged to either the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference or Southwestern Athletic Conference. That distinction changed when both Hampton University and North Carolina A&T State University joined the Big South Conference in 2018 and 2021, respectively; both schools have since joined the Colonial Athletic Association.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: The OVC has also been a leader in advancement of sports opportunities for women. The conference began adding championship competitions for women in 1977 several years after the AIAW began sponsoring national championships for women, but seven years before the NCAA was ready to move into the field. Since 2009, the OVC has been led by Commissioner Beth DeBauche, one of only six female commissioners for the thirty-two Division I conferences.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: Athletic rivalries, really close colleges and especially when competitors are in relatively close proximity, can generate problems with fan behavior, and the conference leadership struggled with controlling the issue for many years. When the national debate on the problem reached its apex in the mid-1990s, the OVC unveiled the national first of its kind "Sportsmanship Statement" in 1995, stating the conference's policy on, "... principles of fair play, ethical conduct and respect for one's opponent." Since then, the OVC has also introduced individual, team (for each sport), and institutional sportsmanship awards.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: Founded by six schools, the expansions of 2007 and 2011 brought the Ohio Valley Conference membership to twelve schools, the most in its history. The OVC dropped to 10 members after the 2020–21 school year, when founding member Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State left for the ASUN Conference. At that time, the OVC was searching for teams to replace both.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: The OVC lost three more members after the 2021–22 school year. Football-sponsoring Austin Peay left for the ASUN Conference, which ultimately launched its own football league in 2022. Non-football Belmont left for the Missouri Valley Conference. Another football school, founding member Murray State, left for the MVC. When announcing its move to the MVC, Murray State announced that it was seeking membership in the football-only Missouri Valley Football Conference, and also announced that it would continue to house its rifle team in the OVC. In a separate statement, Murray State's president indicated that the football team would remain in the OVC in the 2022 season, ensuring that the OVC would retain its automatic bid to the FCS playoffs in that season and giving the league more time to add new football members. Murray State would eventually be accepted by the MVFC effective in 2023.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: Also in July 2022, the OVC added two non-football members in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, athletically known as Little Rock, and the University of Southern Indiana, which started a transition from NCAA Division II, plus a new football-sponsoring member in Lindenwood University, also transitioning from D-II.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: According to a report from Matt Brown of the "Extra Points" college sports blog, the OVC expected to lose Murray State, and was considering multiple expansion candidates, with Southern Indiana among them. Other schools named by Brown's sources as possible candidates were FCS programs Arkansas–Pine Bluff and Western Illinois, plus potential Division II upgraders Grand Valley State, Hillsdale, and Lincoln Memorial.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: On February 22, 2022, the conference announced its intent to combine its football membership with the Big South Conference beginning in 2023. Full details of the alliance, specifically whether it will be operated by either the Big South or OVC, or become a completely separate entity, have yet to be announced.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: Shortly after the 2022 membership changes took effect, the OVC and the Horizon League jointly announced that they would merge their men's tennis leagues under the Horizon banner, effective immediately. All five OVC members that sponsored men's tennis became Horizon affiliates in that sport.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: In August 2012, the OVC announced that it had launched the OVC Digital Network as a replacement for and improvement over the conference's former efforts to provide streaming video coverage of many athletic events that had been in place since 2006. This website carried live, student-produced coverage of most conference games and some non-conference games in baseball, men's and women's basketball, football, soccer, softball, and volleyball as well as some coaches' shows, special presentations, and archived game-casts available for later viewing.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: In its first two years, the network provided well over 600,000 viewings of streamed live video of more than 1400 events.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: In the 2018–19 school year the coverage previously carried on the OVC Digital Network was switched over to ESPN+.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: Years listed in this table are calendar years. For schools that play only spring sports (such as beach volleyball) in the OVC, the calendar year of arrival precedes the first season of competition.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: Starting with the 2012–13 school year, the twelve member schools were split into two divisions for those sports where all schools competed. In the 2014–15 season, women's sports with twelve teams returned to a single league table, while continuing to play a divisional schedule. Men's basketball moved to an 18-game schedule in 2017–18, and they continued to play home-and-home versus the former divisional rivals, and they play home-and-home versus two teams from the other division, with those opponents on a rotation that sets up different pairs from year-to-year. The OVC returned to a single-table format after Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State left in 2021.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: The Ohio Valley Conference currently offers championship competition in 18 NCAA sanctioned sports, with seven for men, 10 for women, and rifle for men's, women's, and coed teams.


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: "This is a list of the champions since 2010. For the complete history, see List of Ohio Valley Conference football champions."


title: Ohio Valley Conference

text: "This is list of the champions since 2010. For the complete men's history, see List of Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball champions."


title: Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen song)

text: "Dancing in the Dark" is a song written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. Adding uptempo synthesizer riffs to his sound for the first time, the song spent four weeks at number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and sold over one million singles in the U.S. It was the first single released from his 1984 album, "Born in the U.S.A.", and became his biggest hit, helping the album become the best-selling album of his career.


text: "Dancing in the Dark" was also successful worldwide, becoming Australia's highest-selling single of 1984 (despite peaking at number five on the Kent Music Report), peaking at number one in Belgium and the Netherlands, and charting within the top 10 in seven other countries.


text: Springsteen wrote "Dancing In the Dark" overnight, after Jon Landau convinced him that the album needed a single. According to journalist Dave Marsh in the book "Glory Days", Springsteen was not impressed with Landau's approach. "Look", he snarled, "I've written seventy songs. You want another one, you write it." Despite this reaction, Springsteen sat in his hotel room and wrote the song in a single night. It sums up his state of mind, his feeling of isolation after the success of his album "The River", and his frustrations of trying to write a hit single. Six takes of "Dancing in the Dark" were recorded on February 14, 1984, at The Hit Factory, and after 58 mixes, work was completed on March 8, 1984. The 12-inch single was released May 9, 1984, and was the highest-selling 12-inch single in the US that year.


text: "Cash Box" said that the song "is classic Springsteen: gutsy vocals set to a hard-driving backbeat" and "an added surprise is the addition of the synthesizer to the inspired playing of the E-Street Band."


text: Released as a single prior to the album's release, the song entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart on May 26, 1984, at no. 36, and spent four weeks at No. 2 (his highest-charting song to date) beginning June 30, 1984 (it was kept off the No. 1 spot by Duran Duran's "The Reflex" and that year's song of the summer, Prince's "When Doves Cry"). It did, however, reach No. 1 on the "Cash Box" Top 100 Singles chart. It was also the first of a record-tying seven top 10 hit singles to be released from "Born in the U.S.A." "Dancing in the Dark" also held the No. 1 spot for six weeks on "Billboard"'s Top Tracks chart. The song reached No. 1 on the "Radio & Records" CHR and AOR airplay charts.


text: The recording also won Springsteen his first Grammy Award, picking up the prize for Best Rock Vocal Performance in 1985. In the 1984 "Rolling Stone" readers poll, "Dancing in the Dark" was voted "Single of the Year". The track has since gone on to earn further recognition and is as such listed one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.


text: In a first-for-Springsteen effort to gain dance and club play for his music, Arthur Baker created the 12-inch "Blaster Mix" of "Dancing in the Dark", wherein he reworked the album version. The remix was released on July 2, 1984. The result generated a lot of media buzz for Springsteen, as well as actual club play; the remix went to #7 on the "Billboard" Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and had the most sales of any 12-inch single in the United States in 1984.


text: Directed by Brian De Palma, the video was shot at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on June 28 and 29, 1984. The first night was a pure video shoot, the second was on the opening date of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed the song twice during that show to allow De Palma to get all the footage he needed. The video is a straight performance video, with Springsteen not playing a guitar, allowing him to invite a young woman from the audience, performed by Courteney Cox, to dance along with him on the stage at the end. Although De Palma had told him that it was she whom he was supposed to select, Springsteen thought she was just a pre-selected fan attending and did not know until afterward that she was a professional actress, brought in from New York City, who had already played in "As the World Turns". Despite this Cox has stated that she was one of many that Springsteen could have selected and that she was secretly hoping to not be picked.


text: The video initially included a storyline in which Cox and several of her friends were getting ready to go to the concert with one of them getting picked. Vignettes were shot for this although they remained unused. In September 1985, the video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance and was nominated for Best Overall Performance. Actor Alfonso Ribeiro later claimed to have drawn inspiration from Cox's dancing in the video in developing "The Carlton" for his character in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".


text: On the 2009 Working on a Dream Tour, the song appeared intermittently during the encores. However, Springsteen for the first time played a number of music festivals during the routing, and "Dancing in the Dark" closed all of them: Pinkpop Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Glastonbury Festival, and Hard Rock Calling. When played live in recent years, the song features a harder, guitar-driven sound, with the distinctive synthesizer riff being supplied by Soozie Tyrell's violin.


text: During the 2012 tour the song again became a regular at live shows with audience members selected to dance not just with Springsteen (reenacting the Courteney Cox scene from the video), but with other band members too, especially new band member Jake Clemons. Springsteen family members appeared on stage for this song on occasion, with mother Adele doing the "Courteney Cox" dance at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia at the start of the tour, and daughter Jessica dancing on stage with him in Paris on July 5.


title: Malu Trevejo

text: María Luisa "Malu" Trevejo (, born October 15, 2002) is a Cuban singer. She became famous for her videos on the video sharing app Musical.ly. She is now also an Instagram personality with more than 10 million followers. On September 22, 2017, she released her debut single, "Luna Llena" with In-Tu Linea and Universal Music Latin. It has acquired over 100 million views on her YouTube channel as of November 2019. Not long after, she released another single "En Mi Mente" which has surpassed 10 million views.


title: Malu Trevejo

text: María Luisa Trevejo was born in Havana, Cuba, to a Cuban mother and Spaniard father. She moved to Madrid, Spain with her mother when she was still a baby and lived there along with her Spanish father for 12 years. During her time in Spain, Trevejo showed a lot of interest in acting especially with skit videos she did with her friends, recorded by her parents. She began belly dancing at an early age, and uploaded videos of her engaging in this activity to the Internet, which garnered her first public attention. She stayed in Spain until she was 13 then moved to Miami, Florida with her mother.


title: Malu Trevejo

text: Shortly after, she opened a Musical.ly (today known as TikTok) account, and gathered a following the eventually numbered in the millions. She posted lip-syncing videos, and then became a verified user.


title: Malu Trevejo

text: Trevejo signed a recording agreement and co-management agreement with In-Tu Linea and Universal Music Latin at the age of 14. On September 22, 2017, she released her debut single "Luna Llena" which accumulated over 113 million views on YouTube.


title: Malu Trevejo

text: Her debut single "Luna Llena", which was produced by the Fliptones, reached 33 million YouTube views within seven weeks of release. Trevejo was recognized as one of Pandora Radio's 2018 Latin Artists to Watch. Trevejo indicated that her album would be in Spanglish, including both English and Spanish-language songs. In June 2017, she signed with In-Tu Linea and Universal Music Latin. "Luna Llena" debuted on the "Billboard" Hot Latin Songs chart at number 27 and sold over 2,000 downloads at the time. A re-make of the song called "Luna Llena (English Version)" was released for non-Spanish speakers.


title: Malu Trevejo

text: On August 2, 2019, Trevejo released a four-track EP called "Una Vez Más". Her single "Luna Llena" peaked at number 18 on the Hot Latin Songs chart for two consecutive weeks, and was certified gold and platinum within a month.


title: Malu Trevejo

text: In October 2020, Trevejo signed with new management and relocated to the Los Angeles area. On her 18th birthday, she created an OnlyFans account, accumulating over 37,000 subscribers in the first week.


title: Malu Trevejo

text: In October 2021, she reported on social media that she had signed to rapper Travis Scott's record label Cactus Jack Records and Atlantic Records. Later that month, she released her new song "Complicado" featuring Luar La L. The song was released under Cactus Jack and Atlantic. She was later dropped from Cactus Jack.


title: Gojoseon

text: Gojoseon () also called Joseon (), was the first kingdom on the Korean Peninsula. According to Korean mythology, the kingdom was established by the legendary founder named Dangun. Gojoseon possessed the most advanced culture in the Korean Peninsula at the time and was an important marker in the progression towards the more centralized states of later periods. The addition of "Go" (, ), meaning "ancient", is used in historiography to distinguish the kingdom from the Joseon dynasty founded in 1392 CE.


title: Gojoseon

text: According to the "Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms", Gojoseon was established in 2333 BCE by Dangun, who was said to be born between a heavenly prince Hwanung and a bear-woman Ungnyeo. While Dangun is a mythological figure from the legends for whom no concrete evidences have been found so far, some interpret the legend of Dangun as the reflections of the sociocultural situations involving the kingdom's early developments. Regardless, the account of Dangun has played an important role in the development of Korean identity. Today, the founding date of Gojoseon is officially celebrated as National Foundation Day in North Korea and South Korea.


title: Gojoseon

text: Some of the sources claim that later in the 12th century BCE following the establishment of Gojoseon, Jizi (also known as Gija), a sage who belonged to the royal family from the Shang dynasty, immigrated to the northern part of the Korean Peninsula and became the founder of Gija Joseon. There are many interpretations of Gojoseon and Gija Joseon, as well as the debates regarding Gija Joseon's existence.


title: Gojoseon

text: In 194 BCE, the ruling dynasty of Gojoseon was overthrown by Wi Man (Wei Man in Chinese), a refugee from the Han vassal state of Yan. Wi Man then established Wiman Joseon.


title: Gojoseon

text: In 108 BC, the Han dynasty, under Emperor Wu, invaded and conquered Wiman Joseon. The Han established four commanderies to administrate the former Gojoseon territory. After the fragmentation of the Han Empire during the 3rd century and the subsequent chaotic 4th century, the area was lost from Chinese control and conquered by Goguryeo in 313 CE.


title: Gojoseon

text: The capital of Gojoseon was Wanggeom (modern Pyongyang) from at least in the 2nd century BCE. In the southern region of the Korean Peninsula, the Jin state arose by the 3rd century BCE.


title: Gojoseon

text: There are three different main founding myths concerning Gojoseon, which revolve around Dangun, Gija, or Wi Man.


title: Gojoseon

text: The myths revolving around Dangun were recorded in the later Korean work "Samguk Yusa (삼국유사)" of the 13th century. This work states that Dangun, the offspring of a heavenly prince and a bear-woman, founded Gojoseon in 2333 BC, and was succeeded by Gija (Qizi) after King Wu of Zhou had placed him onto the throne in 1122 BC. A similar account is found in "Jewang Ungi". According to the legend, the Lord of Heaven, Hwanin had a son, Hwanung, who descended to Baekdu Mountain and founded the city of Shinsi. Then a bear and a tiger came to Hwanung and said that they wanted to become people. Hwanung said to them that if they went in a cave and lived there for 100 days while only eating mugwort and garlic he would change them into human beings. However, about halfway through the 100 days the tiger gave up and ran out of the cave. The bear, in contrast, successfully restrained herself and became a beautiful woman named Ungnyeo (웅녀, 熊女). Hwanung later married Ungnyeo, and she gave birth to Dangun.


title: Gojoseon

text: While the Dangun story is considered to be a myth, it is believed it is a mythical synthesis of a series of historical events relating to the founding of Gojoseon. There are various theories on the origin of this myth. Seo and Kang (2002) believe the Dangun myth is based on integration of two different tribes, an invasive sky-worshipping Bronze Age tribe and a native bear-worshipping neolithic tribe, that led to the foundation of Gojoseon. Lee K. B. (1984) believes 'Dangun-wanggeom' was a title borne by successive leaders of Gojoseon.


title: Gojoseon

text: Dangun is said to have founded Gojoseon around 2333 BC, based on the descriptions of the "Samgungnyusa", "Jewang Ungi", "Dongguk Tonggam" and the "Annals of the Joseon Dynasty". The date differs among historical sources, although all of them put it during the mythical Emperor Yao's reign (traditional dates: 2357 BC? – 2256 BC?). "Samgungnyusa" says Dangun ascended to the throne in the 50th year of the legendary Yao's reign, "Annals of the King Sejong" says the first year, and "Dongguk Tonggam" says the 25th year.


title: Gojoseon

text: In the 7th century BCE, the Yan pioneered the Northeast regions. According to "The Growth of Yan" and "The Context of Guanzi", it can be presumed that Gojoseon grew through trade in this era. It is estimated that Gojoseon developed so far as to be able to war against the Yan in the 4th century BCE.


title: Gojoseon

text: Gija, a man from the period of the Shang dynasty, allegedly fled to the Korean peninsula in 1122 BC during the fall of the Shang to the Zhou dynasty and founded Gija Joseon. Gija Joseon is recognized and mentioned in the earliest surviving Chinese record, "Records of the Three Kingdoms". Gija's story was further developed in later Korean texts such as "Samguk yusa" and "Jewang ungi". By the middle of Goryeo dynasty, a state cult had developed around Gija. The "Dongsa Gangmok" of 1778 described Gija's activities and contributions in Gojoseon. The records of Gija refer to Eight Prohibitions (), that are recorded by the "Book of Han" and evidence a hierarchical society with legal protections of private property.


title: Gojoseon

text: In pre-modern Korea, Gija represented the authenticating presence of Chinese civilization. Until the 12th century CE, Koreans commonly believed that Dangun bestowed upon Korea its people and basic culture, while Gija gave Korea its high culture, and presumably, standing as a legitimate civilisation.


title: Gojoseon

text: Many modern experts have denied Gija Joseon's existence for various reasons, mainly due to contradicting archaeological evidence and anachronistic historical evidence. They point to the "Bamboo Annals" and the "Analects" of Confucius, which were among the first works to mention Gija, but do not mention his migration to Gojoseon. Gija Joseon might have just existed as a symbol of the pre-Qin dynasty migrants who escaped the chaos of the Warring States period.


title: Gojoseon

text: Wi Man was a military officer of the Yan of northeastern China who fled to the northern Korean peninsula in 195 BCE from the encroaching Han dynasty. He founded a principality with Wanggeom-seong as its capital, which is thought to be in the region of present-day Pyongyang. The 3rd-century Chinese text "Weilüe" of the "Sanguozhi" recorded that Wi Man usurped King Jun and thus took over the kingship of Gojoseon.


title: Gojoseon

text: Gojoseon mythology and history can be divided into three phases, Dangun, Gija Joseon, and Wi Man Joseon.


title: Gojoseon

text: Around the mid-Joseon Dynasty, the established view among historians traced Korean origins to Chinese refugees, considering Korean history that of a long series of kingdoms connected with China. As such, the Gija Joseon and Silla states were valorized, while the Gojoseon and Goguryeo states were not considered as important. According to this view, the first state in Korea, Gija Joseon, was founded by Jizi in 1122 BCE, who was a disgruntled Chinese advisor to the Shang Dynasty. The story of how he brought poetry, music, medicine, trade, and a political system to the Korean peninsula was conceived similarly to the proposed Founding of Rome by the Trojan refugee Aeneas. But by the 1930s, under the influence of Shin Chaeho's histories, the Jizi Korean founding story became less popular than that of Dangun, the son of a tiger and a bear – the latter being common in Japanese folklore – who brought civilization to the Korean peninsula. Shin and the other historians who promulgated this myth had been influenced by Daejonggyo, a new religious movement which worshipped Dangun, but attacked pre-annexation textbook narratives of Dangun which portrayed him as the brother of the Japanese god Susanoo. To Shin, Dangun was both the founder of the Korean "minjok" and the first Korean state ("kuk"), and thus the necessary starting point for Korean history. In response to a challenge by the Japanese scholars Shiratori Kurakichi and of Dangun as a fabrication by the author of the "Samguk yusa", nationalist historian Choe Nam-seon attacked Japanese mythology as being built upon fabrications.


title: Gojoseon

text: By focusing on a mythological god which founded a "sacred race" ("shinsŏng chongjok"), Korean nationalist historiography seeks to portray ancient Korea as a golden age of "gods and heroes" where Korea's cultural achievements rivaled those of China and Japan. Accordingly, Shin Chaeho elevated Dangun to play a similar role as did the Yellow Emperor in China and which Amaterasu does in Japan. Choe Nam-seon, according to his , places Dangun even above the Chinese and Japanese emperors, because those rulers were supposedly Shamanistic rulers of the ancient Korean "Părk" tradition. The Dangun story also lends credence to claims that Korean heritage is over 5000 years old. According to Hyung Il Pai, the popularity of Dangun studies can be said to "reflect the progressively ultra-nationalistic trend in Korean historical and archaeological scholarship today". Shin Chaeho named Mount Changbai ("Baekdu" in Korean) on the Sino-Korean border as a part of Korean heritage, by virtue of connection with the mythical Dangun. Changbai, however, was already claimed by the Manchus of China's Qing Dynasty since the 17th century for their origin myth, as well as by the Mongols, and the mountains are considered sacred in Han Chinese culture as well. This nationalist identification of Changbai/Baekdu with Koreans was cemented by the operation of Korean independence movement partisans operating from the Chinese border and retroactively legitimized with reference to the history of the Gojoseon and Balhae states. The Chinese civilizational connection to ancient Korea continues to be attacked by North Korean historians, who allege that the history of Gija Joseon was "viciously distorted by the feudal ruling class, the sadaejuui followers, and the big-power chauvinists".


title: Gojoseon

text: The first mentions of Gojoseon are found in historical records of Guanzi. It locates Gojoseon around Bohai Bay and mentions the state trading with Qi (齊) of China. The "Zhanguoce", "Shanhaijing", and "Shiji"—containing some of its earliest records—refers to Joseon as a region, until the text "Shiji" began referring it as a country from 195 BC onwards.


title: Gojoseon

text: By the 4th century BCE, other states with defined political structures developed in the areas of the earlier Bronze Age "walled-town states"; Gojoseon was the most advanced of them in the peninsular region. The city-state expanded by incorporating other neighboring city-states by alliance or military conquest. Thus, a vast confederation of political entities between the Taedong and Liao rivers was formed. As Gojoseon evolved, so did the title and function of its leader, who came to be designated as "king" (Han), in the tradition of the Zhou dynasty, around the same time as the Yan (燕) leader. Records of that time mention the hostility between the feudal state in Northern China and the "confederated" kingdom of Gojoseon. Notably, a plan to attack the Yan beyond the Liao River frontier is recorded. This confrontation led to the decline and eventual downfall of Gojoseon, described in Yan records as "arrogant" and "cruel". But the ancient kingdom also appears as a prosperous Bronze Age civilization with a complex social structure, including a class of horse-riding warriors who contributed to the development of Gojoseon and its northern expansion into most of the Liaodong basin.


title: Gojoseon

text: Around 300 BCE, Gojoseon lost significant western territory after a war with the Yan state, but this indicates Gojoseon was already a large enough state that it could wage war against Yan and survive the loss of 2000 li (800 kilometers) of territory. Gojoseon is thought to have relocated its capital to the Pyongyang region around this time.


title: Gojoseon

text: In 195 BCE, King Jun appointed a refugee from Yan, Wi Man, to guard the frontier. Wi Man later rebelled in 194 BC and usurped the throne of Gojoseon. King Jun fled to Jin in the south of the Korean Peninsula.


title: Gojoseon

text: In 109 BCE, Emperor Wu of Han invaded near the Liao River. A conflict would erupt in 109 BCE, when Wi Man's grandson King Ugeo (우거왕, ) refused to let Jin's ambassadors through his territory in order to reach the Han dynasty. When Emperor Wu sent an ambassador (涉何) to Wanggeom-seong to negotiate right of passage with King Ugeo, King Ugeo refused and had a general escort him back to Han territory. However, when they got close to Han's borders, he assassinated the general and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle. Emperor Wu, unaware of his deception, made him the military commander of the Commandery of Liaodong. King Ugeo, offended, made a raid on Liaodong and killed him.


title: Gojoseon

text: In response, Emperor Wu commissioned a two-pronged attack, one by land and one by sea, against Gojoseon. The two forces attacking Gojoseon were unable to coordinate well with each other and suffered large losses. Eventually, the commands were merged, and Wanggeom fell in 108 BCE. Han took over the Gojoseon lands and established Four Commanderies of Han in the western part of former Gojoseon.


title: Gojoseon

text: Gojoseon disintegrated by the 1st century BCE as it gradually lost the control of its former fiefs. Many successor states sprang from its former territory, such as Buyeo, Okjeo, Dongye. Goguryeo and Baekje arose out from Buyeo.


title: Gojoseon

text: Around 2000 BCE, a new pottery culture of painted and chiseled design was developed. These people practiced agriculture in a settled communal life, probably organized into familial clans. Rectangular huts and increasingly larger dolmen burial sites were found throughout the peninsula. Bronze daggers and mirrors have been excavated, and there is archaeological evidence of small walled-town states in this period. Dolmens and bronze daggers found in the area are uniquely Korean and cannot be found in China. A few dolmens are found in China, mostly in the Shandong province.


title: Gojoseon

text: In the Mumun pottery period (1500 – 300 BCE), plain coarse pottery replaced earlier comb-pattern wares, possibly as a result of the influence of new populations migrating to Korea from Manchuria and Siberia. This type of pottery typically has thicker walls and displays a wider variety of shapes, indicating improvements in kiln technology. This period is sometimes called the "Korean Bronze Age", but bronze artifacts are relatively rare and regionalized until the 7th century BCE.


title: Gojoseon

text: Rice cultivation was extensive in the lower parts of South Korea and Manchuria in the periods between 1900 BCE to 200 CE.


title: Gojoseon

text: The beginning of the Bronze Age on the peninsula is usually said to be 1000 BCE, but estimates range from the 13th to 8th centuries BCE. Although the Korean Bronze Age culture derives from the Liaoning and Manchuria, it exhibits unique typology and styles, especially in ritual objects.


title: Gojoseon

text: By the 7th century BCE, a Bronze Age material culture with influences from Manchuria, eastern Mongolia, as well as Siberia and Scythian bronze styles, flourished on the peninsula. Korean bronzes contain a higher percentage of zinc than those of the neighboring bronze cultures. Bronze artifacts, found most frequently in burial sites, consist mainly of swords, spears, daggers, small bells, and mirrors decorated with geometric patterns.


title: Gojoseon

text: Gojoseon's development seems linked to the adoption of bronze technology. Its singularity finds its most notable expression in the idiosyncratic type of bronze swords, or "mandolin-shaped daggers" (비파형동검, 琵琶形銅劍). The mandolin-shape dagger is found in the regions of Liaoning, Hebei, and Manchuria down to the Korean Peninsula. It suggests the existence of Gojoseon dominions. Remarkably, the shape of the "mandolin" dagger of Gojoseon differs significantly from the sword artifacts found in China.


title: Gojoseon

text: Megalithic dolmens appear in Korean peninsula and Manchuria around 2000 BCE to 400 BCE. Around 900 BCE, burial practices become more elaborate, a reflection of increasing social stratification. Goindol, the dolmen tombs in Korea and Manchuria, comprising upright stones supporting a horizontal slab, are more numerous in Korea than in other parts of East Asia. Other new forms of burial are stone cists (underground burial chambers lined with stone) and earthenware jar coffins. The bronze objects, pottery, and jade ornaments recovered from dolmens and stone cists indicate that such tombs were reserved for the elite class.


title: Gojoseon

text: Around the 6th century BCE, burnished red wares, made of a fine iron-rich clay and characterized by a smooth, lustrous surface, appear in dolmen tombs, as well as in domestic bowls and cups.


title: Gojoseon

text: In 1964, through a joint excavation by China and North Korea, Gangsang tomb(강상무덤, 崗上墓) and Nusang tomb(누상무덤, 樓上墓) were found in 1964 at the Liaodong peninsula. Nusang was found earlier prior to the excavation in 1958 Gangsang and Nusang tombs are considered to be burial cairn tombs of local nobilities of Gojoseon. Some consider the tombs as the evidences of the slavery that could have existed, but others find that the evidences are inadequate and lacking to deduce such conclusion.


title: Gojoseon

text: Around this time, the state of Jin occupied the southern part of the Korean peninsula. Very little is known about this state except that it was the apparent predecessor to the Samhan confederacies.


title: Gojoseon

text: Around 300 BCE, iron technology was introduced into Korea from Yan state. Iron was produced locally in the southern part of the peninsula by the 2nd century BCE. According to Chinese accounts, iron from the lower Nakdong River in the southeast was valued throughout the peninsula and Japan.


title: Gojoseon

text: In the book of Gogeumju() written by Cui Bao(崔豹) of the Western Jin period, poetry called Gonghuyin(箜篌引) or is said to be of Gojoseon origin.


title: Gojoseon

text: Numerous small states and confederations arose from the remnants of Gojoseon, including Goguryeo, the Buyeo kingdom, Okjeo, and Dongye. Three of the Chinese commanderies fell to local resistance within a few decades, but the last, Nakrang, remained an important commercial and cultural outpost until it was destroyed by the expanding Goguryeo in 313 CE.


title: Gojoseon

text: Jun of Gojoseon is said to have fled to the state of Jin in the southern Korean Peninsula. Jin developed into the Samhan confederacies, the beginnings of Baekje and Silla, continuing to absorb migration from the north. The Samhan confederacies were Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeonhan. King Jun ruled Mahan, which was eventually annexed by Baekje. Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla gradually grew into the Three Kingdoms of Korea that dominated the entire peninsula by around the 4th century.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: The Myanmar Air Force (, ), known until 1989 as the Burmese Air Force, is the aerial branch of Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw. The primary mission of the Myanmar Air Force (MAF) since its inception has been to provide transport, logistical, and close air support to the Myanmar Army in counter-insurgency operations. It is mainly used in internal conflicts in Myanmar, and, on a smaller scale, in relief missions, especially after the deadly Cyclone Nargis of May 2008. Since the military coup in February 2021, Myanmar Air Force aircraft have been used in airstrikes on villages.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: The Myanmar Air Force (MAF) was formed as the Burmese Air Force on 16 January 1947, while Burma (as Myanmar was known until 1989) was still under British rule. By 1948, the fleet of the new air force included 40 Airspeed Oxfords, 16 de Havilland Tiger Moths, four Austers, and three Supermarine Spitfires transferred from the Royal Air Force, and had a few hundred personnel.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: The Mingaladon Air Base HQ, the main air base in the country, was formed on 16 June 1950. No.1 Squadron, Equipment Holding Unit and Air High Command - Burma Air Force, and the Flying Training School, were placed under the jurisdiction of the base. A few months later, on 18 December 1950, No. 2 Squadron was formed with nine Douglas Dakotas as a transport squadron. In 1953, the Advanced Flying Unit was formed under the Mingaladon Air Base with de Havilland Vampire T55s, and by the end of 1953 the Burmese Air Force had three main airbases, at Mingaladon, Hmawbi, and Meiktila, in central Burma.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: In 1953, the Burmese Air Force bought 30 Supermarine Spitfires from Israel and 20 Supermarine Seafires from the United Kingdom, and in 1954 it bought 40 Percival Provost T-53s and 8 de Havilland Vampire Mark T55s from the United Kingdom. In late 1955, the Burmese Air Force formed a Maintenance Air Base in Mingaladon, No. 501 Squadron Group (Hmawbi Airbase) and No. 502 Squadron Group (Mingaladon Air Base). In 1956, the Burmese Air Force bought 10 Cessna 180 aircraft from the United States. The same year, 6 Kawasaki Bell 47Gs formed its first helicopter unit. The following year, the Burmese Air Force procured 21 Hawker Sea Fury aircraft from the United Kingdom and 9 de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otters from Canada. In 1958, it procured 7 additional Kawasaki Bell 47Gs and 12 Vertol H-21 Shawnees from the United States. Five years later, No. 503 Squadron Group was formed with No. 51 Squadron (de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otters and Cessna 180s) and No. 53 Squadron (Bell 47Gs, Kaman HH-43 Huskies, and Aérospatiale Alouettes) in Meiktila.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 15 February 1961, an unmarked Republic of China Air Force Consolidated PB4Y Privateer came into Burmese air space carrying supplies for Chinese Kuomintang forces fighting in northern Burma, and was intercepted by three Hawker Sea Fury fighters of the Burmese Air Force. The intruding bomber and one Burmese fighter crashed in Thailand during the incident. On 17 February, a team from Burmese 9th Front Brigade left for the crash site. A 12.7mm bullet was fired into the fuselage of UB-466, hitting pilot officer Peter as well, breaking five of his ribs. Pilot officer Peter was recorded in the history of Burmese Air Force as an airman who gave his life for the country and the people.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: In 1962, a new radar station in Mingaladon and a mobile radar station in Lwemwe (near Tachileik) were put into operation. By December 1964, the Burmese Air Force had 323 officers and 5,677 other ranks and it acquired Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star jet trainers and a new radar station, which could operate within a 120-mile (193-km) radius, was opened in Namsang. In 1966, the radar arm of the air force underwent a complete overhaul and upgrade, with new radar stations being operated. The Namsang Radar station was upgraded to cover about a 200-mile (322-km) radius and renamed No.71 Squadron. In the same year, the Burmese Air Force formed the No. 1 Airborne Battalion with 26 officers and 750 other ranks.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 1 January 1967, the Burmese Air Force reorganized its command structure. No. 501 Squadron Group in Hmawbi became No. 501 Air Base HQ; No. 502 Squadron Group in Mingalardon became No. 502 Air Base HQ; and No. 503 Squadron Group in Meiktila became No. 503 Air Base HQ in Meiktila. It also maintained airfield detachments in Lashio and Kengtung to cope with the insurgency of Communist Party of Burma in the northeast border region of the country.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: In 1975, the Burmese Air Force took delivery of 18 Bell 205A and seven Bell 206B helicopters from the United States under the International Narcotic Control Program (INCP). In March 1975, it bought 20 SIAI-Marchetti SF.260 trainers from Italy.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: Between 1976 and 1987, the Burmese Air Force bought seven Pilatus PC-6 Turbo porter STOL aircraft; and 16 Pilatus PC-7 and 10 Pilatus PC-9 turboprop trainers from Switzerland. These aircraft were deployed in Lashio for close air support in counter-insurgency operations.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: In the early 1990s, the Burmese Air Force upgraded its facilities and introduced two new air base headquarters and existing air base headquarters were renamed. It also significantly upgraded its radar and electronic warfare facilities. The Burmese Air Force bought more than 100 aircraft from the People's Republic of China, which included F7 IIK interceptors, FT-7 Trainers, A-5C Ground Attack Aircraft, FT-6M trainers, K-8 trainers and Y-8 transport aircraft.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: In 1989, the Burmese Air Force was renamed the Myanmar Air Force in accordance with the country changing its name from Burma to Myanmar.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: In December 1990, the Myanmar Air Force took the first delivery from China of 10 F7 IIK interceptors and two FT-7 Trainers followed by another batch of 12 F7 IIK interceptors in May 1993. Further deliveries of F7 IIK interceptors were made in 1995, 1998 and 1999.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: By 2000, the Myanmar Air Force has received 62 F7 IIK interceptors from China. Israel was contracted to refurbish and upgrade all operational F-7s and FT-7s: these were to get the Elta EL/M-2032 air-to-air radar, Rafael Python Mk. III and even Litening laser-designator pods. The same equipment was then installed on the two-seater FT-7 fighter trainers as well. In a related deal, Israel delivered to Myanmar at least one consignment of laser-guided bombs, but no deliveries of any other weapons are known. Since the Elbit contract was won in 1997, the air force has acquired at least one more squadron of F-7 and FT-7 aircraft from China, but these were not upgraded.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: Between 1992 and 2000, the Myanmar Air Force took delivery of 36 A-5C Ground Attack Aircraft from China. In addition, the Myanmar Air Force also bought 20 Soko G-4 Super Galeb armed jet trainers from Yugoslavia in 1991, but only approximately 6 aircraft were delivered due to the break up of Yugoslavia.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: The Myanmar Air Force procured a range of helicopters from Russia and Poland between 1991 and 1997; it bought 20 PZL-Swidnik Mil Mi-2 and 13 PZL W-3 Sokol helicopters from Poland and 13 Mil Mi-17 from Russia. These helicopters were put into counter-insurgency operations against ethnic rebels in the Irrawaddy River delta. Four Mil Mi-2, four PZL W-3 Sokol, and two Bell 205 helicopters were grouped as an air detachment stationed in Bogalay for "Operation Monediang" in October 1991. During this operation, Mil Mi-2 helicopters were fitted with a wide range of weapons to provide ground attack and air cover for heliborne air assault operations. Four Mil Mi-2s of the air detachment made a total of 80 sorties over 17 targets with nearly 82 flying hours. Four PZL W-3 Sokol helicopters, unarmed and used for troop transport carrying 20 airborne commandos, each flew 443 missions with 197 flying hours. Bell 205 helicopters carried out search and rescue, and they flew 263 missions with over 114 flying hours.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: In 2001, the Myanmar Air Force bought 12 MiG-29 Fighter Aircraft (10 MiG-29Bs and two MiG-29UB two seats trainers) from Belarus. This was followed by an additional order of 20 MiG-29 (10 MiG-29B, 6 MiG-29SE and 4 MiG-29UB) as part of a $570 million defence package in December 2009. 10 MiG-29B were upgraded to SM (mod) standard in 2017. Myanmar Air Force also ordered 10 Mil Mi-35 gunship helicopters as part of a $71 million defence package signed in December 2009.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: Despite these modernisation measures, the capability of the Myanmar Air Force remained questionable, due to its absence during the Battle of Border Post 9631 with Thailand and the rescue missions related to Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: A contract had been signed in December 2015 with Pakistan for the purchase of JF-17 Thunder multirole fighter, which was jointly developed by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, to Myanmar Air Force. However in March 2018 it was reported that the deal for the purchase of JF-17 Thunder has been suspended by Pakistan. However, four JF-17IIs were seen at Air Force Day celebrated in December 2018. Under a bilateral contract, the MAF ordered six Su-30SM fighters from Russia in 2018.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: Personnel: 23,000 all ranks (including 1 Airborne (Paratroop) Battalion with twenty six officers and 750 other personnel of other ranks).


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: Myanmar Air Force also utilised civilian airfields as front-line air fields in case of foreign invasion.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: The Office of the chief of Air Defence is one of the major branches of Tatmadaw. It was established as the Air Defence Command in 1997 but was not fully operational until late 1999. It was renamed the Bureau of Air Defence in the early 2000s.In early 2000s, Tatmadaw established the Myanmar Integrated Air Defence System (MIADS) with help from Russia, Ukraine and China. It is a tri-service bureau with units from all three branches of Myanmar Armed Forces. All Air Defence assets except Anti-Aircraft Artillery are integrated into MIADS.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: The Air Force has several radar installations including the three-dimensional surveillance YLC-2 Radar, the P-37 Early-warning radar system, the JLP-40 defensive radar, and the Galaxy EWR system, which is linked with Integrated Air Defence office.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: Myanmar national insignia (white triangle with yellow field in the centre and borders in blue) is usually applied on six positions. The serialling system of Myanmar Air Force aircraft is suggested to serve as both – unit and individual aircraft identity, this could not be confirmed so far, however. Most of the older aeroplanes carried the serials with the prefix "UB" and the numbers in Burmese. Sometimes the serials were outlined in white. Combat aircraft generally carry serials in black.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 11 June 2014, a Mig-29UB caught fire and crashed on to farmland near Myothit township of Magway at 8:30 a.m. (local time). Two pilots safely ejected.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 10 February 2016, a Beech 1900 aircraft crashed after taking off from Naypidaw Airport, killing 5 military personnels.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 14 June 2016, a Mi-2 helicopter crashed near the Yangon–Mandalay Expressway at being refueled at the Taungngu airbase, killing three military servicemen on board.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: 2017 Myanmar Air Force Shaanxi Y-8 crash: On 7 June 2017, a Shaanxi Y-8 was reported missing west to Dawei. The aircraft was carrying 122 people. There were no survivors.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 3 April 2018, An F-7 fighter aircraft of Taungoo Air Base has crashed into a farm near KyunKone Village in Taungoo. It is learned that the F-7, which is used as a training aircraft, was believed to have crashed while trying to land the ground at around 11:30 am. It is reported that a pilot was killed on the spot during the crash.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 16 October 2018, two Myanmar F-7Ms crashed near Magway, Myanmar, killing both pilots and a civilian on the ground. Both aircraft struck a broadcast tower. One plummeted into a rice paddy, while the other nose-dived near a famous Buddhist pagoda in the Magway region of central Myanmar.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 3 May 2021, one helicopter was shot down near the town of Moemauk in Kachin province by the Kachin Independence Army in response to the MAF's air raid. There was no confirmation from the MAF nor the KIA on which helicopter was shot down and which AA system was used by the KIA in the incident.


title: Myanmar Air Force

text: On 11 June 2021, a Beechcraft 1900 crashed on its landing approach to Pyin Oo Lwin's airport, killing 12 people including a senior Buddhist monk, the abbot of Zay Kone Monastery in Pyinmana.


title: Supersonic transport

text: A supersonic transport (SST) or a supersonic airliner is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. The last passenger flight of the Tu-144 was in June 1978 and it was last flown in 1999 by NASA. Concorde's last commercial flight was in October 2003, with a November 26, 2003 ferry flight being its last airborne operation. Following the permanent cessation of flying by Concorde, there are no remaining SSTs in commercial service. Several companies have each proposed a supersonic business jet, which may bring supersonic transport back again.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Supersonic airliners have been the objects of numerous recent and ongoing design studies. Drawbacks and design challenges are excessive noise generation (at takeoff and due to sonic booms during flight), high development costs, expensive construction materials, high fuel consumption, extremely high emissions, and an increased cost per seat over subsonic airliners. Despite these challenges, Concorde claimed it operated profitably.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In 2016, NASA announced it had signed a contract for the design of a modern low-noise SST prototype. The designing team is led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Throughout the 1950s an SST looked possible from a technical standpoint, but it was not clear if it could be made economically viable. Because of differences in lift generation, aircraft operating at supersonic speeds have approximately one-half the lift-to-drag ratio of subsonic aircraft. This implies that for any given required amount of lift, the aircraft will have to supply about twice the thrust, leading to considerably greater fuel use. This effect is pronounced at speeds close to the speed of sound, as the aircraft is using twice the thrust to travel at about the same speed. The "relative" effect is reduced as the aircraft accelerates to higher speeds. Offsetting this increase in fuel use was the potential to greatly increase sortie rates of the aircraft, at least on medium and long-range flights where the aircraft spends a considerable amount of time in cruise. SST designs flying at least three times as fast as existing subsonic transports were possible, and would thus be able to replace as many as three planes in service, and thereby lower costs in terms of manpower and maintenance.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Serious work on SST designs started in the mid-1950s, when the first generation of supersonic fighter aircraft were entering service. In Britain and France, government-subsidized SST programs quickly settled on the delta wing in most studies, including the Sud Aviation Super-Caravelle and Bristol Type 223, although Armstrong-Whitworth proposed a more radical design, the Mach 1.2 M-Wing. Avro Canada proposed several designs to TWA that included Mach 1.6 double-ogee wing and Mach 1.2 delta-wing with separate tail and four under-wing engine configurations. Avro's team moved to the UK where its design formed the basis of Hawker Siddeley's designs. By the early 1960s, the designs had progressed to the point where the go-ahead for production was given, but costs were so high that the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Sud Aviation eventually merged their efforts in 1962 to produce Concorde.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In the early 1960s, various executives of US aerospace companies were telling the US public and Congress that there were no technical reasons an SST could not be produced. In April 1960, Burt C Monesmith, a vice president with Lockheed, stated to various magazines that an SST constructed of steel weighing could be developed for $160 million and in production lots of 200 or more sold for around $9 million. But it was the Anglo-French development of the Concorde that set off panic in the US industry, where it was thought that Concorde would soon replace all other long range designs, especially after Pan Am took out purchase options on the Concorde. Congress was soon funding an SST design effort, selecting the existing Lockheed L-2000 and Boeing 2707 designs, to produce an even more advanced, larger, faster and longer ranged design. The Boeing 2707 design was eventually selected for continued work, with design goals of ferrying around 300 passengers and having a cruising speed near to Mach 3. The Soviet Union set out to produce its own design, the Tu-144, which the western press nicknamed the "Concordski".


title: Supersonic transport

text: The SST was seen as particularly offensive due to its sonic boom and the potential for its engine exhaust to damage the ozone layer. Both problems impacted the thinking of lawmakers, and eventually Congress dropped funding for the US SST program in and all overland commercial supersonic flight was banned over the US. Presidential advisor Russell Train warned that a fleet of 500 SSTs flying at for a period of years could raise stratospheric water content by as much as 50% to 100%. According to Train, this could lead to greater ground-level heat and hamper the formation of ozone. In relation to stratospheric water and its potential to increase ground temperatures, although not mentioning Concorde as the source of the "recent decline in water vapor is unknown", in 2010 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration noted that Stratospheric Water Vapor levels in the 1980s and 1990s were higher than that in the 2000s, by approximately 10%, with Susan Solomon of NOAA calculating that it is this change which is responsible for the slow down in the rise in surface temperatures from global warming by about 25 percent when compared to the warming rate in the 1990s. Russell Train's other, water-ozone concern, was however countered by Fred Singer in a letter to the journal "Nature" in 1971, "which upset those who claimed that supersonic transports might seriously affect stratospheric ozone".


title: Supersonic transport

text: Later, an additional threat to the ozone was hypothesized as a result of the exhaust's nitrogen oxides, a threat that was, in 1974, seemingly validated by MIT. However, while many purely theoretical models were indicating the potential for large ozone losses from SST nitrogen oxides (NOx), other scientists in the paper ""Nitrogen Oxides, Nuclear Weapon Testing, Concorde and Stratospheric Ozone"" turned to historical ozone monitoring and atmospheric nuclear testing to serve as a guide and means of comparison, observing that no detectable ozone loss was evident from approximately 213 megatons of explosive energy being released in 1962, so therefore the equivalent amount of NOx from "1047" Concordes flying "10 hours a day", would likewise, not be unprecedented. In 1981 models and observations were still irreconcilable. More recent computer models in 1995 by David W. Fahey, an atmospheric scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and others, suggest that the drop in ozone would be at most, "no more" than 1 to 2% if a fleet of 500 supersonic aircraft was operated. Fahey expressed that this would not be a fatal obstacle for an advanced SST development – while "a big caution flag...[it] should not be a showstopper for advanced SST development" because ""removing the sulfur in the fuel of the [Concorde]" would essentially eliminate the hypothesized 1%–2% ozone-destruction-reaction-pathway.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Despite the model-observation discrepancy surrounding the ozone concern, in the mid-1970s, six years after its first supersonic test flight, Concorde was now ready for service. The US political outcry was so high that New York banned the plane. This threatened the aircraft's economic prospects — it had been built with the London–New York route in mind. The plane was allowed into Washington, D.C. (at Dulles in Virginia), and the service was so popular that New Yorkers were soon complaining because they did not have it. It was not long before Concorde was flying into JFK.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Along with shifting political considerations, the flying public continued to show interest in high-speed ocean crossings. This started additional design studies in the US, under the name "AST" (Advanced Supersonic Transport). Lockheed's SCV was a new design for this category, while Boeing continued studies with the 2707 as a baseline.


title: Supersonic transport

text: By this time, the economics of past SST concepts were no longer reasonable. When first designed, the SSTs were envisioned to compete with long-range aircraft seating 80 to 100 passengers such as the Boeing 707, but with newer aircraft such as the Boeing 747 carrying four times that, the speed and fuel advantages of the SST concept were taken away by sheer size.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Another problem was that the wide range of speeds over which an SST operates makes it difficult to improve engines. While subsonic engines had made great strides in increased efficiency through the 1960s with the introduction of the turbofan engine with ever-increasing bypass ratios, the fan concept is difficult to use at supersonic speeds where the "proper" bypass is about 0.45, as opposed to 2.0 or higher for subsonic designs. For both of these reasons the SST designs were doomed by higher operational costs, and the AST programs vanished by the early 1980s.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Concorde only sold to British Airways and Air France, with subsidized purchases that were to return 80% of the profits to the government. In practice for almost all of the length of the arrangement, there was no profit to be shared. After Concorde was privatized, cost reduction measures (notably the closing of the metallurgical wing testing site which had done enough temperature cycles to validate the aircraft through to 2010) and ticket price raises led to substantial profits.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Since Concorde stopped flying, it has been revealed that over the life of Concorde, the plane did prove profitable, at least to British Airways. Concorde operating costs over nearly 28 years of operation were approximately £1 billion, with revenues of £1.75 billion.


title: Supersonic transport

text: On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after take-off with all 109 occupants and four on ground killed; the only fatal incident involving Concorde. Commercial service was suspended until November 2001, and Concorde aircraft were retired in 2003 after 27 years of commercial operations.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The last regular passenger flights landed at London Heathrow Airport on Friday, October 24, 2003, just past 4 p.m.: Flight 002 from New York, a second flight from Edinburgh, Scotland, and the third which had taken off from Heathrow on a loop flight over the Bay of Biscay.


title: Supersonic transport

text: By the end of the 20th century, projects like the Tupolev Tu-244, Tupolev Tu-344, SAI Quiet Supersonic Transport, Sukhoi-Gulfstream S-21, High Speed Civil Transport, etc. had not been realized.


title: Supersonic transport

text: On August 21, 1961, a Douglas DC-8-43 (registration N9604Z) exceeded Mach 1 in a controlled dive during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base. The crew were William Magruder (pilot), Paul Patten (copilot), Joseph Tomich (flight engineer), and Richard H. Edwards (flight test engineer). This is the first supersonic flight by a civilian airliner.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In total, 20 Concordes were built: two prototypes, two development aircraft and 16 production aircraft. Of the sixteen production aircraft, two did not enter commercial service and eight remained in service as of April 2003. All but two of these aircraft are preserved; the two that are not are F-BVFD (cn 211), parked as a spare-parts source in 1982 and scrapped in 1994, and F-BTSC (cn 203), which crashed outside Paris on July 25, 2000, killing 100 passengers, 9 crew members, and 4 people on the ground.


title: Supersonic transport

text: A total of sixteen airworthy Tupolev Tu-144s were built; a seventeenth Tu-144 (reg. 77116) was never completed. There was also at least one ground test airframe for static testing in parallel with the prototype 68001 development.


title: Supersonic transport

text: For all vehicles traveling through air, the force of drag is proportional to the coefficient of drag ("C"), to the square of the airspeed and to the air density. Since drag rises rapidly with speed, a key priority of supersonic aircraft design is to minimize this force by lowering the coefficient of drag. This gives rise to the highly streamlined shapes of SSTs. To some extent, supersonic aircraft also manage drag by flying at higher altitudes than subsonic aircraft, where the air density is lower.


title: Supersonic transport

text: As speeds approach the speed of sound, the additional phenomenon of wave drag appears. This is a powerful form of drag that begins at transonic speeds (around Mach 0.88). Around Mach 1, the peak coefficient of drag is four times that of subsonic drag. Above the transonic range, the coefficient drops drastically again, although remains 20% higher by Mach 2.5 than at subsonic speeds. Supersonic aircraft must have considerably more power than subsonic aircraft require to overcome this wave drag, and although cruising performance above transonic speed is more efficient, it is still less efficient than flying subsonically.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Another issue in supersonic flight is the lift to drag ratio (L/D ratio) of the wings. At supersonic speeds, airfoils generate lift in an entirely different manner than at subsonic speeds, and are invariably less efficient. For this reason, considerable research has been put into designing wing planforms for sustained supersonic cruise. At about Mach 2, a typical wing design will cut its L/D ratio in half (e.g., Concorde managed a ratio of 7.14, whereas the subsonic Boeing 747 has an L/D ratio of 17). Because an aircraft's design must provide enough lift to overcome its own weight, a reduction of its L/D ratio at supersonic speeds requires additional thrust to maintain its airspeed and altitude.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Jet engine design shifts significantly between supersonic and subsonic aircraft. Jet engines, as a class, can supply increased fuel efficiency at supersonic speeds, even though their specific fuel consumption is greater at higher speeds. Because their speed over the ground is greater, this decrease in efficiency is less than proportional to speed until well above Mach 2, and the consumption per unit distance is lower.


title: Supersonic transport

text: When Concorde was being designed by Aérospatiale–BAC, high bypass jet engines ("turbofan" engines) had not yet been deployed on subsonic aircraft. Had Concorde entered service against earlier designs like the Boeing 707 or de Havilland Comet, it would have been much more competitive, though the 707 and DC-8 still carried more passengers. When these high bypass jet engines reached commercial service in the 1960s, subsonic jet engines immediately became much more efficient, closer to the efficiency of turbojets at supersonic speeds. One major advantage of the SST disappeared.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Turbofan engines improve efficiency by increasing the amount of cold low-pressure air they accelerate, using some of the energy normally used to accelerate hot air in the classic non-bypass turbojet. The ultimate expression of this design is the turboprop, where almost all of the jet thrust is used to power a very large fan – the propeller. The efficiency curve of the fan design means that the amount of bypass that maximizes overall engine efficiency is a function of forward speed, which decreases from propellers, to fans, to no bypass at all as speed increases. Additionally, the large frontal area taken up by the low-pressure fan at the front of the engine increases drag, especially at supersonic speeds, and means the bypass ratios are much more limited than on subsonic aircraft.


title: Supersonic transport

text: For example, the early Tu-144S was fitted with a low bypass turbofan engine which was much less efficient than Concorde's turbojets in supersonic flight. The later TU-144D featured turbojet engines with comparable efficiency. These limitations meant that SST designs were not able to take advantage of the dramatic improvements in fuel economy that high bypass engines brought to the subsonic market, but they were already more efficient than their subsonic turbofan counterparts.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Supersonic vehicle speeds demand narrower wing and fuselage designs, and are subject to greater stresses and temperatures. This leads to aeroelasticity problems, which require heavier structures to minimize unwanted flexing. SSTs also require a much stronger (and therefore heavier) structure because their fuselage must be pressurized to a greater differential than subsonic aircraft, which do not operate at the high altitudes necessary for supersonic flight. These factors together meant that the empty weight per seat of Concorde is more than three times that of a Boeing 747.