title: Gimli Glider

text: In older aircraft that flew with a three-person crew, the flight engineer kept a fuel log and supervised the fueling. The Boeing 767 belonged to a new generation of aircraft that flew with only a pilot and co-pilot, but Air Canada had not clearly assigned responsibility for supervising the fueling. On the day of the accident, two technicians and two pilots worked on the calculation in Montreal. One technician stopped after he found that he wasn't making any progress. Another technician was using a piece of paper that he had in his pocket, and he stopped when he ran out of space. First Officer Quintal did the calculation by hand, and Captain Pearson checked the arithmetic with his Jeppesen slide rule.


title: Gimli Glider

text: Since the FQIS was not working, Captain Pearson decided to take on enough fuel to reach Edmonton without refueling at Ottawa. The flight plan showed that of fuel were required for the flight from Montreal to Ottawa to Edmonton. A dripstick check found that of fuel were already in the tanks. To calculate how much fuel the airplane had to take on, he needed to convert the 7682litres of fuel already in the tanks to their equivalent mass in kilograms, subtract that figure from the 22,300 kg total fuel that would be needed, and convert that result back into its equivalent volume. The density in metric units was 0.803 kg/L, so the correct calculation would have been:


title: Gimli Glider

text: At the time of the incident, Canada's aviation sector was in the process of converting from Imperial to metric units. As part of this process, the new 767s being acquired by Air Canada were the first to be calibrated for metric units. The fueler reported that the density of jet fuel at the time was 1.77, which was in lb/L, since other Air Canada aircraft used lb. Pearson and Quintal both used the density of jet fuel in lb/L without converting to kg/L:


title: Gimli Glider

text: Instead of taking on the 20,088 L of additional fuel that they required, they took on only 4,917 L. The use of the incorrect conversion factor led to a total fuel load of only rather than the that were needed. This was less than half of the amount required to reach their destination.


title: Gimli Glider

text: The flight management computer (FMC) measures fuel consumption, allowing the crew to keep track of fuel burned as the flight progresses. It is normally updated automatically by the FQIS, but the fuel quantity can also be entered manually. Because the FMC would reset during the stopover in Ottawa, the captain had the fuel tanks measured again with the dripstick. There were 11,430 litres of fuel in the tanks, and the fueler gave the density as 1.78. Repeating the same error, Captain Pearson determined that he had of fuel and entered this number into the FMC. However, he actually had just of fuel.


title: Gimli Glider

text: The previous flight from Edmonton to Montreal had avoided the error. The fueler at Edmonton knew the density of jet fuel in kg/L, and he calculated the correct number of litres to pump into the tanks. He testified that it was a "regular practice of his" to do such calculations. When fueling was complete, Captains Weir and Johnson checked the figures. The captain knew "from previous experience" the density of jet fuel in kg/L. He also had a working FQIS, which agreed with his calculations.


title: Gimli Glider

text: Following Air Canada's internal investigation, Captain Pearson was demoted for six months, and First Officer Quintal was suspended for two weeks for allowing the incident to happen. Three maintenance workers were also suspended. In 1985, Pearson and Quintal were awarded the first ever Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Diploma for Outstanding Airmanship. Several attempts by other crews who were given the same circumstances in a simulator at Vancouver resulted in crashes. Quintal was promoted to captain in 1989. Pearson remained with Air Canada for ten years and then moved to flying for Asiana Airlines; he retired in 1995. Maurice Quintal died at the age of 68 on September 24, 2015, in Saint-Donat, Quebec.


title: Gimli Glider

text: The aircraft was temporarily repaired at Gimli and flew out two days later to be fully repaired at a maintenance base in Winnipeg. Following the full repair, the aircraft was returned to service with Air Canada. Following a successful appeal against their suspensions, Pearson and Quintal were assigned as crew members aboard another Air Canada flight.


title: Gimli Glider

text: The Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic TV series "Mayday" covered the incident in a 2008 episode titled "Gimli Glider". The episode featured interviews with survivors, including Pearson and Quintal, and a dramatic recreation of the flight.


title: Gimli Glider

text: After almost 25 years of service, C-GAUN flew its last revenue flight on January 1, 2008. On January 24, 2008, the Gimli Glider took its final voyage, AC7067, from Montreal Trudeau to Tucson International Airport before flying to its retirement in the Mojave Desert in California.


title: Gimli Glider

text: Flight AC7067 was captained by Jean-Marc Bélanger, a former head of the Air Canada Pilots Association, while captains Robert Pearson and Maurice Quintal were on board to oversee the flight from Montreal to California's Mojave Airport. Also on board were three of the six flight attendants who were on Flight 143.


title: Gimli Glider

text: On July 23, 2008, the 25th anniversary of the incident, pilots Pearson and Quintal were celebrated in a parade in Gimli, and a mural was dedicated to commemorate the landing.


title: Gimli Glider

text: In April 2013, the Gimli Glider was offered for sale at auction, by a company called Collectable Cars, with an estimated price of . However, bidding only reached and the lot was unsold.


title: Gimli Glider

text: According to a website dedicated to saving the aircraft, the Gimli Glider was scrapped in early 2014. Parts of the metal fuselage skin were made into 10,000 sequentially numbered luggage tags, and , were offered for sale by a California company, MotoArt, under the product name "PLANETAGS".


title: Gimli Glider

text: In June 2017, a permanent museum exhibit of the event opened in Gimli. The exhibit includes a cockpit mock-up flight simulator, and , sold memorabilia of the event.


title: Devonian

text: The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied.


title: Devonian

text: The first significant adaptive radiation of life on dry land occurred during the Devonian. Free-sporing vascular plants began to spread across dry land, forming extensive forests which covered the continents. By the middle of the Devonian, several groups of plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants appeared. The arthropod groups of myriapods, arachnids and hexapods also became well-established early in this period, after starting their expansion to land at least from the Ordovician period.


title: Devonian

text: Fish reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fishes. The placoderms began dominating almost every known aquatic environment. The ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates (tetrapods) began adapting to walk on land, as their strong pectoral and pelvic fins gradually evolved into legs, though they were not fully established until the Late Carboniferous. In the oceans, primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and Late Ordovician.


title: Devonian

text: The first ammonites, a subclass of molluscs, appeared. Trilobites, the mollusc-like brachiopods, and the great coral reefs were still common. The Late Devonian extinction which started about 375 million years ago severely affected marine life, killing off all placodermi, and all trilobites, save for a few species of the order Proetida.


title: Devonian

text: Devonian palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent of Gondwana to the south, the small continent of Siberia to the north, and the medium-sized continent of Laurussia to the east. Major tectonic events include the closure of the Rheic Ocean, the separation of South China from Gondwana, and the resulting expansion of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. The Devonian experienced several major mountain-building events as Laurussia and Gondwana approached; these include the Acadian Orogeny in North America and the beginning of the Variscan Orogeny in Europe. These early collisions preceded the formation of Pangaea in the Late Paleozoic.


title: Devonian

text: The period is named after Devon, a county in southwestern England, where a controversial argument in the 1830s over the age and structure of the rocks found distributed throughout the county was eventually resolved by the definition of the Devonian Period in the geological timescale. The Great Devonian Controversy was a long period of vigorous argument and counter-argument between the main protagonists of Roderick Murchison with Adam Sedgwick against Henry De la Beche supported by George Bellas Greenough. Murchison and Sedgwick won the debate and named the period they proposed as the Devonian System.


title: Devonian

text: While the rock beds that define the start and end of the Devonian Period are well identified, the exact dates are uncertain. According to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the Devonian extends from the end of the Silurian Mya, to the beginning of the Carboniferous Mya – in North America, at the beginning of the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous.


title: Devonian

text: In 19th century texts the Devonian has been called the "Old Red Age", after the red and brown terrestrial deposits known in the United Kingdom as the Old Red Sandstone in which early fossil discoveries were found. Another common term is "Age of the Fishes", referring to the evolution of several major groups of fish that took place during the period. Older literature on the Anglo-Welsh basin divides it into the Downtonian, Dittonian, Breconian, and Farlovian stages, the latter three of which are placed in the Devonian.


title: Devonian

text: The Devonian has also erroneously been characterised as a "greenhouse age", due to sampling bias: most of the early Devonian-age discoveries came from the strata of western Europe and eastern North America, which at the time straddled the Equator as part of the supercontinent of Euramerica where fossil signatures of widespread reefs indicate tropical climates that were warm and moderately humid. In fact the climate in the Devonian differed greatly during its epochs and between geographic regions. For example, during the Early Devonian, arid conditions were prevalent through much of the world including Siberia, Australia, North America, and China, but Africa and South America had a warm temperate climate. In the Late Devonian, by contrast, arid conditions were less prevalent across the world and temperate climates were more common.


title: Devonian

text: The Devonian Period is formally broken into Early, Middle and Late subdivisions. The rocks corresponding to those epochs are referred to as belonging to the Lower, Middle and Upper parts of the Devonian System.


title: Devonian

text: The Early Devonian lasted from and began with the Lochkovian Stage , which was followed by the Pragian from and then by the Emsian, which lasted until the Middle Devonian began, .


title: Devonian

text: During this time, the first ammonoids appeared, descending from bactritoid nautiloids. Ammonoids during this time period were simple and differed little from their nautiloid counterparts. These ammonoids belong to the order Agoniatitida, which in later epochs evolved to new ammonoid orders, for example Goniatitida and Clymeniida. This class of cephalopod molluscs would dominate the marine fauna until the beginning of the Mesozoic Era.


title: Devonian

text: The Middle Devonian comprised two subdivisions: first the Eifelian, which then gave way to the Givetian . During this time the jawless agnathan fishes began to decline in diversity in freshwater and marine environments partly due to drastic environmental changes and partly due to the increasing competition, predation, and diversity of jawed fishes. The shallow, warm, oxygen-depleted waters of Devonian inland lakes, surrounded by primitive plants, provided the environment necessary for certain early fish to develop such essential characteristics as well developed lungs, and the ability to crawl out of the water and onto the land for short periods of time.


title: Devonian

text: Finally, the Late Devonian started with the Frasnian, , during which the first forests took shape on land. The first tetrapods appeared in the fossil record in the ensuing Famennian subdivision, the beginning and end of which are marked with extinction events. This lasted until the end of the Devonian, .


title: Devonian

text: The Devonian was a relatively warm period, and probably lacked any glaciers for much of the period. The temperature gradient from the equator to the poles was not as large as it is today. The weather was also very arid, mostly along the equator where it was the driest. Reconstruction of tropical sea surface temperature from conodont apatite implies an average value of in the Early Devonian. levels dropped steeply throughout the Devonian Period. The newly evolved forests drew carbon out of the atmosphere, which were then buried into sediments. This may be reflected by a Mid-Devonian cooling of around . The Late Devonian warmed to levels equivalent to the Early Devonian; while there is no corresponding increase in concentrations, continental weathering increases (as predicted by warmer temperatures); further, a range of evidence, such as plant distribution, points to a Late Devonian warming. The climate would have affected the dominant organisms in reefs; microbes would have been the main reef-forming organisms in warm periods, with corals and stromatoporoid sponges taking the dominant role in cooler times. The warming at the end of the Devonian may even have contributed to the extinction of the stromatoporoids. At the terminus of the Devonian, Earth rapidly cooled into an icehouse, marking the beginning of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age.


title: Devonian

text: The Devonian world involved many continents and ocean basins of various sizes. The largest continent, Gondwana, was located entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. It corresponds to modern day South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and India, as well as minor components of North America and Asia. The second-largest continent, Laurussia, was northwest of Gondwana, and corresponds to much of modern-day North America and Europe. Various smaller continents, microcontinents, and terranes were present east of Laurussia and north of Gondwana, corresponding to parts of Europe and Asia. The Devonian Period was a time of great tectonic activity, as the major continents of Laurussia and Gondwana drew closer together.


title: Devonian

text: Sea levels were high worldwide, and much of the land lay under shallow seas, where tropical reef organisms lived. The enormous "world ocean", Panthalassa, occupied much of the Northern Hemisphere as well as wide swathes east of Gondwana and west of Laurussia. Other minor oceans were the Paleo-Tethys Ocean and Rheic Ocean.


title: Devonian

text: By the early Devonian, the continent Laurussia (also known as Euramerica) was fully formed through the collision of the continents Laurentia (modern day North America) and Baltica (modern day northern and eastern Europe). The tectonic effects of this collision continued into the Devonian, producing a string of mountain ranges along the southeastern coast of the continent. In present-day eastern North America, the Acadian Orogeny continued to raise the Appalachian Mountains. Further east, the collision also extended the rise of the Caledonian Mountains of Great Britain and Scandinavia. As the Caledonian Orogeny wound down in the later part of the period, orogenic collapse facilitated a cluster of granite intrusions in Scotland.


title: Devonian

text: Most of Laurussia was located south of the equator, but in the Devonian it moved northwards and began to rotate counterclockwise towards its modern position. While the most northern parts of the continent (such as Greenland and Ellesmere Island) established tropical conditions, most of the continent was located within the natural dry zone along the Tropic of Capricorn, which (as nowadays) is a result of the convergence of two great air-masses, the Hadley cell and the Ferrel cell. In these near-deserts, the Old Red Sandstone sedimentary beds formed, made red by the oxidised iron (hematite) characteristic of drought conditions. The abundance of red sandstone on continental land also lends Laurussia the name "the Old Red Continent". For much of the Devonian, the majority of western Laurussia (North America) was covered by subtropical inland seas which hosted a diverse ecosystem of reefs and marine life. Devonian marine deposits are particularly prevalent in the midwestern and northeastern United States. Devonian reefs also extended along the southeast edge of Laurussia, a coastline now corresponding to southern England, Belgium, and other mid-latitude areas of Europe.


title: Devonian

text: In the Early and Middle Devonian, the west coast of Laurussia was a passive margin with broad coastal waters, deep silty embayments, river deltas and estuaries, found today in Idaho and Nevada. In the Late Devonian, an approaching volcanic island arc reached the steep slope of the continental shelf and began to uplift deep water deposits. This minor collision sparked the start of a mountain-building episode called the Antler orogeny, which extended into the Carboniferous. Mountain building could also be found in the far northeastern extent of the continent, as minor tropical island arcs and detached Baltic terranes re-join the continent. Deformed remnants of these mountains can still be found on Ellesmere Island and Svalbard. Many of the Devonian collisions in Laurussia produce both mountain chains and foreland basins, which are frequently fossiliferous.


title: Devonian

text: Gondwana was by far the largest continent on the planet. It was completely south of the equator, although the northeastern sector (now Australia) did reach tropical latitudes. The southwestern sector (now South America) was located to the far south, with Brazil situated near the South Pole. The northwestern edge of Gondwana was an active margin for much of the Devonian, and saw the accretion of many smaller land masses and island arcs. These include Chilenia, Cuyania, and Chaitenia, which now form much of Chile and Patagonia. These collisions were associated with volcanic activity and plutons, but by the Late Devonian the tectonic situation had relaxed and much of South America was covered by shallow seas. These south polar seas hosted a distinctive brachiopod fauna, the Malvinokaffric Realm, which extended eastward to marginal areas now equivalent to South Africa and Antarctica. Malvinokaffric faunas even managed to approach the South Pole via a tongue of Panthalassa which extended into the Paraná Basin.


title: Devonian

text: The northern rim of Gondwana was mostly a passive margin, hosting extensive marine deposits in areas such as northwest Africa and Tibet. The eastern margin, though warmer than the west, was equally active. Numerous mountain building events and granite and kimberlite intrusions affected areas equivalent to modern day eastern Australia, Tasmania, and Antarctica.


title: Devonian

text: Several island microcontinents (which would later coalesce into modern day Asia) stretched over a low-latitude archipelago to the north of Gondwana. They were separated from the southern continent by an oceanic basin: the Paleo-Tethys. Although the western Paleo-Tethys Ocean had existed since the Cambrian, the eastern part only began to rift apart as late as the Silurian. This process accelerated in the Devonian. The eastern branch of the Paleo-Tethys was fully opened when South China and Annamia (a terrane equivalent to most of Indochina), together as a unified continent, detached from the northeastern sector of Gondwana. Nevertheless, they remained close enough to Gondwana that their Devonian fossils were more closely related to Australian species than to north Asian species. Other Asian terranes remained attached to Gondwana, including Sibumasu (western Indochina), Tibet, and the rest of the Cimmerian blocks.


title: Devonian

text: While the South China-Annamia continent was the newest addition to the Asian microcontinents, it was not the first. North China and the Tarim Block (now northwesternmost China) were located westward and continued to drift northwards, powering over older oceanic crust in the process. Further west was a small ocean (the Turkestan Ocean), followed by the larger microcontinents of Kazakhstania, Siberia, and Amuria. Kazakhstania was a volcanically active region during the Devonian, as it continued to assimilate smaller island arcs.


title: Devonian

text: Siberia was located just north of the equator as the largest landmass in the Northern Hemisphere. At the beginning of the Devonian, Siberia was inverted (upside down) relative to its modern orientation. Later in the period it moved northwards and began to twist clockwise, though it was not near its modern location. Siberia approached the eastern edge of Laurussia as the Devonian progressed, but it was still separated by a seaway, the Ural Ocean. Although Siberia's margins were generally tectonically stable and ecologically productive, rifting and deep mantle plumes impacted the continent with flood basalts during the Late Devonian. The Altai-Sayan region was shaken by volcanism in the Early and Middle Devonian, while Late Devonian magmatism was magnified further to produce the Vilyuy Traps, flood basalts which may have contributed to the Late Devonian Mass Extinction. The last major round of volcanism, the Yakutsk Large Igneous Province, continued into the Carboniferous to produce extensive kimberlite deposits.


title: Devonian

text: Similar volcanic activity also affected the nearby microcontinent of Amuria (now Manchuria, Mongolia and their vicinities). Though certainly close to Siberia in the Devonian, the precise location of Amuria is uncertain due to contradictory paleomagnetic data.


title: Devonian

text: The Rheic Ocean, which separated Laurussia from Gondwana, was wide at the start of the Devonian, having formed after the drift of Avalonia away from Gondwana. It steadily shrunk as the period continued, as the two major continents approached near the equator in the early stages of the assembly of Pangaea. The closure of the Rheic Ocean began in the Devonian and continued into the Carboniferous. As the ocean narrowed, endemic marine faunas of Gondwana and Laurussia combined into a single tropical fauna. The history of the western Rheic Ocean is a subject of debate, but there is good evidence that Rheic oceanic crust experienced intense subduction and metamorphism under Mexico and Central America.


title: Devonian

text: The closure of the eastern part of the Rheic Ocean is associated with the assemblage of central and southern Europe. In the early Paleozoic, much of Europe was still attached to Gondwana, including the terranes of Iberia, Armorica (France), Palaeo-Adria (the western Mediterranean area), Bohemia, Franconia, and Saxothuringia. These continental blocks, collectively known as the Armorican Terrane Assemblage, split away from Gondwana in the Silurian and drifted towards Laurussia through the Devonian. Their collision with Laurussia leads to the beginning of the Variscan Orogeny, a major mountain-building event which would escalate further in the Late Paleozoic. Franconia and Saxothuringia collided with Laurussia near the end of the Early Devonian, pinching out the easternmost Rheic Ocean. The rest of the Armorican terranes followed, and by the end of the Devonian they were fully connected with Laurussia. This sequence of rifting and collision events led to the successive creation and destruction of several small seaways, including the Rheno-Hercynian, Saxo-Thuringian, and Galicia-Moldanubian oceans. Their sediments were eventually compressed and completely buried as Gondwana fully collided with Laurussia in the Carboniferous.


title: Devonian

text: Sea levels in the Devonian were generally high. Marine faunas continued to be dominated by bryozoa, diverse and abundant brachiopods, the enigmatic hederellids, microconchids and corals. Lily-like crinoids (animals, their resemblance to flowers notwithstanding) were abundant, and trilobites were still fairly common. Bivalves became commonplace in deep water and outer shelf environments. The first ammonites also appeared during or slightly before the early Devonian Period around 400  Mya. Bactritoids make their first appearance in the Early Devonian as well; their radiation, along with that of ammonoids, has been attributed by some authors to increased environmental stress resulting from decreasing oxygen levels in the deeper parts of the water column. Among vertebrates, jawless armored fish (ostracoderms) declined in diversity, while the jawed fish (gnathostomes) simultaneously increased in both the sea and fresh water. Armored placoderms were numerous during the lower stages of the Devonian Period and became extinct in the Late Devonian, perhaps because of competition for food against the other fish species. Early cartilaginous (Chondrichthyes) and bony fishes (Osteichthyes) also become diverse and played a large role within the Devonian seas. The first abundant genus of shark, "Cladoselache", appeared in the oceans during the Devonian Period. The great diversity of fish around at the time has led to the Devonian being given the name "The Age of Fish" in popular culture.


title: Devonian

text: The Devonian saw significant expansion in the diversity of nektonic marine life driven by the abundance of planktonic microorganisms in the free water column as well as high ecological competition in benthic habitats, which were extremely saturated; this diversification has been labeled the Devonian Nekton Revolution by many researchers. However, other researchers have questioned whether this revolution existed at all; a 2018 study found that although the proportion of biodiversity constituted by nekton increased across the boundary between the Silurian and Devonian, it decreased across the span of the Devonian, particularly during the Pragian, and that the overall diversity of nektonic taxa did not increase significantly during the Devonian compared to during other geologic periods, and was in fact higher during the intervals spanning from the Wenlock to the Lochkovian and from the Carboniferous to the Permian. The study's authors instead attribute the increased overall diversity of nekton in the Devonian to a broader, gradual trend of nektonic diversification across the entire Palaeozoic.


title: Devonian

text: A now-dry barrier reef, located in present-day Kimberley Basin of northwest Australia, once extended , fringing a Devonian continent. Reefs are generally built by various carbonate-secreting organisms that can erect wave-resistant structures near sea level. Although modern reefs are constructed mainly by corals and calcareous algae, Devonian reefs were either microbial reefs built up mostly by autotrophic cyanobacteria or coral-stromatoporoid reefs built up by coral-like stromatoporoids and tabulate and rugose corals. Microbial reefs dominated under the warmer conditions of the early and late Devonian, while coral-stromatoporoid reefs dominated during the cooler middle Devonian.


title: Devonian

text: By the Devonian Period, life was well underway in its colonization of the land. The moss forests and bacterial and algal mats of the Silurian were joined early in the period by primitive rooted plants that created the first stable soils and harbored arthropods like mites, scorpions, trigonotarbids and myriapods (although arthropods appeared on land much earlier than in the Early Devonian and the existence of fossils such as "Protichnites" suggest that amphibious arthropods may have appeared as early as the Cambrian). By far the largest land organism at the beginning of this period was the enigmatic "Prototaxites", which was possibly the fruiting body of an enormous fungus, rolled liverwort mat, or another organism of uncertain affinities that stood more than tall, and towered over the low, carpet-like vegetation during the early part of the Devonian. Also, the first possible fossils of insects appeared around 416  Mya, in the Early Devonian. Evidence for the earliest tetrapods takes the form of trace fossils in shallow lagoon environments within a marine carbonate platform/shelf during the Middle Devonian, although these traces have been questioned and an interpretation as fish feeding traces ("Piscichnus") has been advanced.


title: Devonian

text: Many Early Devonian plants did not have true roots or leaves like extant plants, although vascular tissue is observed in many of those plants. Some of the early land plants such as "Drepanophycus" likely spread by vegetative growth and spores. The earliest land plants such as "Cooksonia" consisted of leafless, dichotomous axes and terminal sporangia and were generally very short-statured, and grew hardly more than a few centimetres tall. Fossils of "Armoricaphyton chateaupannense", about 400 million years old, represent the oldest known plants with woody tissue. By the Middle Devonian, shrub-like forests of primitive plants existed: lycophytes, horsetails, ferns, and progymnosperms evolved. Most of these plants had true roots and leaves, and many were quite tall. The earliest-known trees appeared in the Middle Devonian. These included a lineage of lycopods and another arborescent, woody vascular plant, the cladoxylopsids and progymnosperm "Archaeopteris". These tracheophytes were able to grow to large size on dry land because they had evolved the ability to biosynthesize lignin, which gave them physical rigidity and improved the effectiveness of their vascular system while giving them resistance to pathogens and herbivores. These are the oldest-known trees of the world's first forests. By the end of the Devonian, the first seed-forming plants had appeared. This rapid appearance of many plant groups and growth forms has been referred to as the Devonian Explosion or the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution.


title: Devonian

text: The 'greening' of the continents acted as a carbon sink, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide may have dropped. This may have cooled the climate and led to a massive extinction event. ("See" Late Devonian extinction).


title: Devonian

text: Primitive arthropods co-evolved with this diversified terrestrial vegetation structure. The evolving co-dependence of insects and seed plants that characterized a recognizably modern world had its genesis in the Late Devonian Epoch. The development of soils and plant root systems probably led to changes in the speed and pattern of erosion and sediment deposition. The rapid evolution of a terrestrial ecosystem that contained copious animals opened the way for the first vertebrates to seek terrestrial living. By the end of the Devonian, arthropods were solidly established on the land.


title: Devonian

text: The Late Devonian extinction is not a single event, but rather is a series of pulsed extinctions at the Givetian-Frasnian boundary, the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, and the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Together, these are considered one of the "Big Five" mass extinctions in Earth's history. The Devonian extinction crisis primarily affected the marine community, and selectively affected shallow warm-water organisms rather than cool-water organisms. The most important group to be affected by this extinction event were the reef-builders of the great Devonian reef systems.


title: Devonian

text: Amongst the severely affected marine groups were the brachiopods, trilobites, ammonites, and acritarchs, and the world saw the disappearance of an estimated 96% of vertebrates like conodonts and bony fishes, and all of the ostracoderms and placoderms. Land plants as well as freshwater species, such as our tetrapod ancestors, were relatively unaffected by the Late Devonian extinction event (there is a counterargument that the Devonian extinctions nearly wiped out the tetrapods).


title: Devonian

text: The reasons for the Late Devonian extinctions are still unknown, and all explanations remain speculative. Canadian paleontologist Digby McLaren suggested in 1969 that the Devonian extinction events were caused by an asteroid impact. However, while there were Late Devonian collision events (see the Alamo bolide impact), little evidence supports the existence of a large enough Devonian crater.


title: Uranium glass

text: Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium, usually in oxide diuranate form, added to a glass mix before melting for colouration. The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% uranium by weight, although some 20th-century pieces were made with up to 25% uranium.


title: Uranium glass

text: First identified in 1789 by a German chemist, uranium was soon being added to decorative glass for its fluorescent effect. James Powell’s Whitefriars glass company in London, England, was one of the first to market the glowing glass, but other manufacturers soon realised its sales potential and Uranium glass was produced across Europe and later North America.


title: Uranium glass

text: Uranium glass was once made into tableware and household items, but fell out of widespread use when the availability of uranium to most industries was sharply curtailed during the Cold War in the 1940s to 1990s. Most such objects are now considered antiques or retro-era collectibles, although there has been a minor revival in art glassware. Otherwise, modern uranium glass is now mainly limited to small objects like beads or marbles as scientific or decorative novelties.


title: Uranium glass

text: The normal colour of uranium glass ranges from yellow to green depending on the oxidation state and concentration of the metal ions, although this may be altered by the addition of other elements as glass colorants. Uranium glass also fluoresces bright green under ultraviolet light and can register above background radiation on a sufficiently sensitive Geiger counter, although most pieces of uranium glass are considered to be harmless and only negligibly radioactive.


title: Uranium glass

text: The most common color of uranium glass is pale yellowish-green, which in the 1930s led to the nickname "Vaseline glass", based on a perceived resemblance to the appearance of Vaseline-brand petroleum jelly as formulated at that time. Specialized collectors still define Vaseline glass as transparent or semi-transparent uranium glass in this specific color.


title: Uranium glass

text: Vaseline glass is sometimes used as a synonym for any uranium glass, especially in the United States, but this usage is frowned upon, since Vaseline-brand petroleum jelly was only yellow, not other colors. The term is sometimes applied to other types of glass based on certain aspects of their superficial appearance in normal light, regardless of actual uranium content which requires a blacklight test to verify the characteristic green fluorescence.


title: Uranium glass

text: In the United Kingdom and Australia, the term Vaseline glass can be used to refer to any type of translucent glass.


title: Uranium glass

text: Like "Vaseline", the terms "custard" and "jad(e)ite" are often applied on the basis of superficial appearance rather than uranium content. Conversely, "Depression glass" is a general description for any piece of glassware manufactured during the Great Depression regardless of appearance or formula.


title: Uranium glass

text: The use of uranium glass dates back to at least 79 AD, the date of a mosaic containing yellow glass with 1% uranium oxide found in a Roman villa on Cape Posillipo in the Bay of Naples, Italy, by R. T. Gunther of the University of Oxford in 1912. Starting in the late Middle Ages, pitchblende was extracted from the Habsburg silver mines in Joachimsthal, Bohemia (now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic), and was used as a coloring agent in the local glassmaking industry.


title: Uranium glass

text: Martin Klaproth (1743–1817), who discovered uranium, later experimented with the use of the element as a glass colourant.


title: Uranium glass

text: Uranium glass is used as one of several intermediate glasses in what is known to scientific glass blowers as a 'graded seal'. This is typically used in glass-to-metal seals such as tungsten and molybdenum or nickel based alloys such as Kovar, as an intermediary glass between the metal sealing glass and lower expansion borosilicate glass.


title: Uranium glass

text: Uranium glass became popular in the mid-19th century, with its period of greatest popularity being from the 1880s to the 1920s.


title: Uranium glass

text: The first major producer of items made of uranium glass is commonly recognized as Austrian Franz Xaver Riedel, who named the yellow () and yellow-green (German: Gelb-Grün) varieties of the glass "annagelb" and "annagrün", respectively, in honor of his daughter Anna Maria. Riedel was a prolific blower of uranium glass in Unter-Polaun (today Dolni Polubny), Bohemia from 1830 to 1848.


title: Uranium glass

text: By the 1840s, many other European glassworks began to produce uranium glass items and developed new varieties of uranium glass. The Baccarat glassworks in France created an opaque green uranium glass which they named chrysoprase from its similarity to that green form of chalcedony.


title: Uranium glass

text: At the end of the 19th century, glassmakers discovered that uranium glass with certain mineral additions could be tempered at high temperatures, inducing varying degrees of micro-crystallization. This produced a range of increasingly opaque glasses from the traditional transparent yellow or yellow-green to an opaque white. During the Depression years, more iron oxide was added to the mixture to match popular preferences for a greener glass. This material, technically a glass-ceramic, acquired the name "vaseline glass" because of its supposedly similar appearance to petroleum jelly. Today, a few manufacturers continue the vaseline glass tradition: Fenton Glass, Mosser Glass, Gibson Glass and Jack Loranger.


title: Uranium glass

text: U.S. production of uranium glasses ceased in the middle years of World War II because of the government's confiscation of uranium supplies for the Manhattan Project from 1942 to 1958. After the restrictions in the United States were eased several firms resumed production of uranium glass, including Fenton, and Mosser; though uranium was still regulated as a strategic material. Following the Cold War, restrictions on uranium glass were completely lifted. During this time many older pieces entered the free market and new pieces continued to be produced in small quantities into the 2000s.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: Michael Wayne Campbell (born February 1, 1950) is an American guitarist. He was a member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and co-wrote many of the band's hits with Petty, including "Refugee", "Here Comes My Girl", "You Got Lucky", and "Runnin' Down a Dream". Outside of The Heartbreakers, he has worked as a session guitarist and songwriter with a number of other acts, including composing and playing on the Don Henley hit "The Boys of Summer", as well as working on most of Stevie Nicks's solo albums. Campbell, along with Neil Finn, joined Fleetwood Mac to replace lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham on their world tour in 2018–2019. After the end of that tour he has been involved in his own band, The Dirty Knobs, and has released 2 albums, as of 2022.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: On November 11, 2011, "Rolling Stone" magazine named Mike Campbell to their top 100 guitarists coming in at number 79. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 as a member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: Campbell was born on February 1, 1950 in Panama City, Florida. He grew up there and in Jacksonville, Florida, where he graduated from Jean Ribault High School in 1968. At the age of 16, his mother bought him his first guitar, a Harmony acoustic model which he later described as "unplayable", from a pawnshop. His first electric guitar was a $60 Guyatone, but playing a friend's Gibson SG (a model Campbell would not own himself for many years) was a transformative experience. Like Tom Petty, Campbell drew his strongest influences from The Byrds and Bob Dylan, with additional inspiration coming from guitarists such as Scotty Moore, Luther Perkins, George Harrison, Carl Wilson, Jerry Garcia, Roger McGuinn, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Jimmy Page, Mick Taylor, and Neil Young. The first song he learned to play was "Baby Let Me Follow You Down," a song which appeared on Dylan's eponymous debut album. He formed a band named Dead or Alive which quickly disbanded.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: Campbell met Tom Petty through drummer Randall Marsh. Marsh was auditioning to be in Petty's band Mudcrutch and learned that Mudcrutch had recently lost their guitarist. He suggested that Petty try Campbell, who was his roommate and had actually been listening to the conversation in the next room. Campbell impressed Petty with his version of Johnny B. Goode and was offered a spot in the band. Mudcrutch became a very popular act around Gainesville and north Florida in the early 1970s. They relocated to Los Angeles in 1974 and signed a record deal with Shelter Records, but released only one poor-selling single and broke up soon after.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: In 1976, Campbell rejoined Petty to found Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with former Mudcrutch member Benmont Tench (keyboards) along with Ron Blair (bass guitar) and Stan Lynch (drums).


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: Like the other players in the Heartbreakers, Campbell avoids the virtuoso approach to playing, preferring to have his work serve the needs of each song.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: Campbell co-produced the Heartbreakers albums "Southern Accents", "", "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)", "Into the Great Wide Open", "Songs and Music from "She's the One"", "Echo", "The Last DJ", "The Live Anthology" and "Mojo", as well as the Petty solo albums "Full Moon Fever", "Wildflowers", and "Highway Companion".


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: Campbell collaborated, recorded, and toured with Tom Petty for almost 50 years. His last live performance with the Heartbreakers was on September 25, 2017, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Tom Petty died unexpectedly about one week later, on October 2.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: In 1997 Campbell co-founded the Blue Stingrays with Heartbreakers Benmont Tench & Ron Blair and Mudcrutch member Randall Marsh, and released their one album the same year.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: In 2007, he joined a reformed Mudcrutch with Petty, Tench, Marsh, and Tom Leadon, who debuted in 2008 with a tour and an album. They would return in 2016 for another album and tour before Petty's death.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: On April 9, 2018, Fleetwood Mac announced that Campbell would be joining the band along with Neil Finn to replace lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham for their 2018-19 world tour.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: In March 2022, Campbell announced that he had not worked with Fleetwood Mac after 2019, and that he had moved on.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: While in the Heartbreakers, Campbell was lead singer and guitarist with a side band, the Dirty Knobs, with guitarist Jason Sinay, drummer Matt Laug and bassist Lance Morrison. "It's rougher-edged [than Petty's material]," Campbell says of the group. "It's slightly over-driven, less polished, lots of Sixties influence: The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, The Animals. It's something I probably should have done a long time ago, but I didn't 'cause I was wrapped up in the Heartbreakers." They released a single, "Feelin' High", in 2010.


title: Mike Campbell (musician)

text: The band released the title track from its debut album, "Wreckless Abandon", in January 2020, followed by the album itself in November of that year. The album was produced by Campbell and George Drakoulias, who, with Tom Petty, produced Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "The Last D.J." The cover art was by Klaus Voormann, who created the cover of The Beatles "Revolver."


title: DeviantArt

text: DeviantArt (historically stylized as deviantART) is an American online art community that features artwork, videography and photography, launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others.


title: DeviantArt

text: DeviantArt, Inc. is headquartered in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California. DeviantArt had about 36 million visitors annually by 2008. In 2010, DeviantArt users were submitting about 1.4 million favorites and about 1.5 million comments daily. In 2011, it was the thirteenth largest social network with about 3.8 million weekly visits. Several years later, in 2017, the site had more than 25 million members and more than 250 million submissions. On February 23, 2017, the company announced it was being acquired by Wix.com in a $36 million deal.


title: DeviantArt

text: DeviantArt started as a site connected with people who took computer applications and modified them to their own tastes, or who posted the applications from the original designs. As the site grew, members in general became known as artists and submissions as arts. DeviantArt was originally launched on August 7, 2000, by Scott Jarkoff, Matt Stephens, Angelo Sotira and others, as part of a larger network of music-related websites called the Dmusic Network. The site flourished largely because of its unique offering and the contributions of its core member base and a team of volunteers after its launch, but was officially incorporated in 2001 about eight months after launch.


title: DeviantArt

text: DeviantArt was loosely inspired by projects like Winamp facelift, customize.org, deskmod.com, screenphuck.com, and skinz.org, all application skin-based websites. Sotira entrusted all public aspects of the project to Scott Jarkoff as an engineer and visionary to launch the early program. All three co-founders shared backgrounds in the application skinning community, but it was Matt Stephens whose major contribution to DeviantArt was the suggestion to take the concept further than skinning and more toward an art community. Many of the individuals involved with the initial development and promotion of DeviantArt still hold positions with the project. Angelo Sotira currently serves as the chief executive officer of DeviantArt, Inc.


title: DeviantArt

text: On November 14, 2006, DeviantArt introduced the option to submit their works under Creative Commons licenses giving the artists the right to choose how their works can be used. A Creative Commons license is one of several public copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. On September 30, 2007, a film category was added to DeviantArt, allowing artists to upload videos. An artist and other viewers can add annotations to sections of the film, giving comments or critiques to the artist about a particular moment in the film. In 2007, DeviantArt received $3.5 million in Series A (first round) funding from undisclosed investors, and in 2013, it received $10 million in Series B funding.


title: DeviantArt

text: On December 4, 2014, the site unveiled a new logo and announced the release of an official mobile app on both iOS and Android, released on December 10, 2014.


title: DeviantArt

text: On February 23, 2017, DeviantArt was acquired by Wix.com, Inc. for $36 million. The site plans to integrate DeviantArt and Wix functionality, including the ability to utilize DeviantArt resources on websites built with Wix, and integrating some of Wix's design tools into the site.


title: DeviantArt

text: As of March 1, 2017, Syria was banned from accessing DeviantArt's services entirely, citing US and Israeli sanctions and aftermath on February 19, 2018. After Syrian user Mythiril used a VPN to access the site and disclosed the geoblocking in a journal, titled "The hypocrisy of deviantArt", DeviantArt ended the geoblocking except for commercial features.


title: DeviantArt

text: In autumn of 2018, spambots began hacking into an indeterminately large number of long-inactive accounts and placing spam Weblinks in their victims' About sections (formerly known as DeviantIDs), where users of the site display their public profile information. An investigation into this matter began in January 2019. This situation ended some time in late 2021.


title: DeviantArt

text: There is no review for potential copyright and Creative Commons licensing violations when a work is submitted to DeviantArt, so potential violations can remain unnoticed until reported to administrators using the mechanism available for such issues. Some members of the community have been the victims of copyright infringement from vendors using artwork illegally on products and prints, as reported in 2007. The reporting system in which to counteract copyright infringement directly on the site has been subject to a plethora of criticism from members of the site, given that it may take weeks, or even a month before a filed complaint for copyright infringement is answered.


title: DeviantArt

text: Due to the nature of DeviantArt as an art community with a worldwide reach, companies use DeviantArt to promote themselves and create more advertising through contests. "CoolClimate" is a research network connected with the University of California, and they held a contest in 2012 to address the impact of climate change. Worldwide submissions were received, and the winner was featured in "The Huffington Post".


title: DeviantArt

text: Various car companies have held contests. Dodge ran a contest in 2012 for art of the Dodge Dart and over 4,000 submissions were received. Winners received cash and item prizes, and were featured in a gallery at Dodge-Chrysler headquarters. Lexus partnered with DeviantArt in 2013 to run a contest for cash and other prizes based on their Lexus IS design; the winner's design became a modified Lexus IS and was showcased at the SEMA 2013 show in Los Angeles, California.


title: DeviantArt

text: DeviantArt also hosts contests for upcoming movies, such as "Riddick". Fan art for "Riddick" was submitted, and director David Twohy chose the winners, who would receive cash prizes and some other DeviantArt-related prizes, as well as having their artwork made into official fan-art posters for events. A similar contest was held for "Dark Shadows" where winners received cash and other prizes.


title: DeviantArt

text: Video games also conduct contests with DeviantArt, such as the 2013 "Tomb Raider" contest. The winner had their art made into an official print sold internationally at the Tomb Raider store and received cash and other prizes. Other winners also received cash and DeviantArt-related prizes.


title: DeviantArt

text: The site has over 358 million images which have been uploaded by its over 35 million registered members. By July 2011, DeviantArt was the largest online art community. Members of DeviantArt may leave comments and critiques on individual deviation pages, allowing the site to be called "a [free] peer evaluation application". Along with textual critique, DeviantArt now offers the option to leave a small picture as a comment. This can be achieved using an option of DeviantArt Muro, which is a browser-based drawing tool that DeviantArt has developed and hosts. However, only members of DeviantArt can save their work as deviations. Another feature of Muro is what is called "Redraw"; it records the user as they draw their image, and then the user can post the entire process as a film deviation. Some artists in late 2013 began experimenting with the use of breakfast cereal as the subject of their pieces, although this trend has only started spreading.


title: DeviantArt

text: Individual deviations are displayed on their own pages, with a list of statistical information about the image, as well as a place for comments by the artist and other members, and the option to share through other social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Prior to Version 9, Deviations were required to be organized into categories when a member uploaded an image and this allowed DeviantArt's search engine to find images concerning similar topics.


title: DeviantArt

text: Individual members can organize their own deviations into folders on their personal pages. The member pages (profiles) show a member's personally uploaded deviations and journal postings. Journals are like personal blogs for the member pages, and the choice of topic is up to each member; some use it to talk about their personal or art-related lives, others use it to spread awareness or marshal support for a cause. Also displayed are a member's favorites, a collection of other users' images from DeviantArt that a member saves to its own folder. Another thing found on the profile page is a member's watchers; a member adds another member to their watch list in order to be notified when that member uploads something. The watcher notifications are gathered in a member's Message Center with other notices, like when other users comment on that member's deviations, or when the member's image has been put in someone's favorites.


title: DeviantArt

text: Members can build groups that any registered member of the site can join. These groups are usually based on an artist's chosen medium and content. Some examples of these are Literature (poetry, prose, etc.), Drawing (traditional, digital, or mixed-media), Photography (macro, nature, fashion, stills), and many others. Within these groups are where they do collaborations and have their art featured and introduced to artists of the same kind.


title: DeviantArt

text: DeviantArt does not allow pornographic, sexually explicit and/or obscene material to be submitted; however, "tasteful" nudity is allowed, even as photographs. To view mature artwork and content, members must be at least 18 years of age and to enable the content, they have to make an account.


title: DeviantArt

text: In order to communicate on a more private level, Notes can be sent between individual members, like an email within the site. The other opportunities for communication between members are DeviantArt's forums, for more structured, long-term discussions, and chat rooms, for group instant messaging.


title: DeviantArt

text: DeviantArt has been revising the website in "versions", with each version releasing multiple new features. Coincidentally, the third, fourth and fifth versions of the site were all released on August 7, the "birthday" of the website's founding.


title: DeviantArt

text: In early November 2018, DeviantArt released a promo site showcasing a new update, titled 'Eclipse'. The site showed that the update would include a minimalist design strategy, a dark mode option, modified CSS editing, improved filtering through a 'Love Meter,' profile headers, and other cosmetic changes and improvements. The update would also include no third-party advertisements and improved features for the site's Core users.


title: DeviantArt

text: On November 14, 2018, a beta version of the Eclipse site was made available for Core Members who marked their accounts for beta testing. As of November 21, 2018, the site reported that over 4,000 users tried Eclipse and that the site received almost 1,700 individual feedback reports; these included bug reports, feature requests, and general commentary. On March 6, 2019, DeviantArt officially released Eclipse to all users, with a toggle to switch back to the old site.


title: DeviantArt

text: On May 20, 2020, the previous User Interface was discontinued from access, leaving only Eclipse available.


title: DeviantArt

text: On June 17 and 18, 2005, DeviantArt held their first convention, the deviantART Summit, at the Palladium in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States. The summit consisted of several exhibitions by numerous artists, including artscene groups old and new at about 200 different booths. Giant projection screens displayed artwork as it was being submitted live to DeviantArt, which was receiving 50,000 new images daily at the time.


title: DeviantArt

text: Starting May 13, 2009, DeviantArt embarked on a world tour, visiting cities around the world, including Sydney, Singapore, Warsaw, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, London, New York City, Toronto and Los Angeles. During the world tour, the new "Portfolio" feature of DeviantArt was previewed to attendees.


title: DeviantArt

text: Occasionally, DeviantArt hosts a meeting for members to come together in real life and interact, exchange, and have fun. There have been meetings for the birthday of DeviantArt, called "Birthday Bashes", as well as simple general get-togethers around the world. In 2010, European DeviantArt members held a deviantMEET to celebrate DeviantArt's birthday in August. There was also a celebration that year in the House of Blues in Hollywood, California.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: The Hellenic Air Force (HAF; , sometimes abbreviated as ΠΑ) is the air force of Greece ("Hellenic" being the synonym for "Greek" in the Greek language). It is considered to be one of the largest air forces in NATO and is globally placed 18th out of 139 countries. It is also noted for its high quality pilots, benchmarked annually in international exercises. Under the Kingdom of Greece from 1935 to 1973, it was known as the Royal Hellenic Air Force (RHAF) ().


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: The Hellenic Air Force is one of the three branches of the Hellenic Armed Forces, and its mission is to guard and protect Greek airspace, provide air assistance and support to the Hellenic Army and the Hellenic Navy and to provide humanitarian aid in Greece and around the world. The Hellenic Air Force includes approximately 33,000 active troops, of whom 11,750 are career officers, 14,000 are professional soldiers (ΕΠ.ΟΠ.), 7,250 are volunteer conscripts and 1,100 are women. The motto of the Hellenic Air Force is the ancient Greek phrase (, "Always Dominate the Heights"), and the HAF emblem represents a flying eagle in front of the Hellenic Air Force roundel. The General Air Staff (GEA) is based at the Papagou Camp in the Municipality of Filothei - Psychiko of the Prefecture of Attica.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 1911, the Greek Government appointed French specialists to form the Hellenic Aviation Service. Six Greek officers were sent to France for training, while the first four Farman type aircraft were ordered. All six graduated from the Farman school in Étampes near Paris, but only four subsequently served in aviation. The first Greek civilian aviator that was given military rank was Emmanuel Argyropoulos, who flew in a Nieuport IV.G. "Alkyon" aircraft, on February 8, 1912. The first military flight was made on May 13, 1912, by Lieutenant Dimitrios Kamberos. In June, Kamberos flew with the "Daedalus", a Farman Aviation Works aircraft that had been converted into a seaplane, setting a new average speed world record at . In September of the same year the Greek Army fielded its first squadron, the "Aviators Company" (Greek: "Λόχος Αεροπόρων").


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: On October 5, 1912, Kamberos flew the first combat mission, a reconnaissance flight over Thessaly. This was on the first day of the Balkan wars. On the same day a similar mission was flown by German mercenaries in Ottoman service, over the Thrace front against the Bulgarian Army. The Greek and the Ottoman missions, coincidentally flown on the same day, were the first military aviation missions in the history of conventional war. As a matter of fact, all Balkan countries used military aircraft and foreign mercenaries during the Balkan Wars.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: January 24, 1913, saw the first naval co-operation mission in history, which took place over the Dardanelles. Aided by the Royal Hellenic Navy destroyer RHNS , 1st Lieutenant Michael Moutoussis and Ensign Aristeidis Moraitinis flew the Farman hydroplane and drew up a diagram of the positions of the Turkish fleet, against which they dropped four bombs. This was not the first air-to-ground attack in military history, as there was a precedent in the Turkish-Italian war of 1911, but the first recorded attack against ships from the air.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Initially, the Hellenic Army and the Royal Hellenic Navy operated separate Army Aviation and Naval Aviation units. During the Balkan Wars, various French Henry and Maurice Farman aircraft types were used. The Hellenic Naval Air Service was officially founded in 1914 by the then Commander in Chief (CnC) of the Royal Hellenic Navy, British Admiral Mark Kerr. Greek aviation units participated in World War I and the Asia Minor Campaign, equipped by the Allies with a variety of French and British designs.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 1930 the Aviation Ministry was founded, establishing the Air Force as the third branch of the Hellenic Armed Forces. The Hellenic Army Air Service and Hellenic Naval Air Service were merged into a single service, the Royal Hellenic Air Force. In 1931 the Hellenic Air Force Academy, the "Icarus School" (Greek: "Σχολή Ικάρων"), was founded.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 1939, an order for 24 Marcel Bloch MB.151 fighter aircraft was placed, but only 9 of the aircraft reached Greece, since the outbreak of World War II prevented the French from completing the order. The aircraft entered service in the 24th Pursuit Squadron (MD – "Moira Dioxis") of the Air Force.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: During the Italian invasion of Greece (1940) in the Second World War, although being severely outnumbered and counting only 79 aircraft against 380 fighters and bombers of the Italian Regia Aeronautica, RHAF managed to successfully resist the assault. On October 30, two days after the start of the war, there was the first air battle. Some Henschel Hs126s of 3/2 Flight of 3 Observation "Mira" took off to locate Italian Army columns. But they were intercepted and attacked by Fiat CR.42 Falcos of 393 "Squadriglia". A first Henschel was hit and crashed, killing its observer, Pilot Officer Evanghelos Giannaris, the first Greek aviator to die in the war. A second Hs 126 was downed over Mount Smolikas, killing Pilot Officer Lazaros Papamichail and Sergeant Constantine Yemenetzis. On November 2, 1940, a Breguet 19 intercepted the 3 Alpine Division Julia while it was penetrating the Pindos mountain range in an attempt to occupy Metsovo. On the same day, 2nd Lieutenant Marinos Mitralexis having run out of ammunition, aimed the nose of his PZL P.24 right into the tail of an enemy Cant Z1007bis bomber, smashing the rudder and sending the aircraft out of control.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: After 65 days of war the RHAF had lost 31 officers, 7 wounded, plus 4 NCOs killed and 5 wounded. Meanwhile, the number of combat aircraft had dropped to 28 fighters and 7 battleworthy bombers. Still by March 1941, the Italian invasion on air and ground had been successfully pushed back, aided by the vital contribution of the RHAF to the Greek victory. During the Greco-Italian War the Hellenic Air Force shot down 68 enemy aircraft (official records) and claimed another 24. The British RAF claimed 150 additional air victories against Italian aircraft. However, the Italian Air Force recorded only 65 aircraft lost, during the entire campaign against the Greeks and later the British, with 495 additional aircraft reported as damaged.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In April 1941, the German Wehrmacht invaded Greece in order to assist the Italian assault. During this second wave of foreign invasion, the Luftwaffe eventually succeeded in destroying almost the entire Hellenic Air Force. However, some aircraft managed to escape to the Middle East, including 5 Avro Anson, 1 Dornier Do 22, 1 Arado 196 and 3 Avro 626.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: During the German occupation of Greece, the Air Force was rebuilt under the expatriated Greek Air Force Ministry based in Cairo. Three squadrons were built, operating under the command of the British RAF. These squadrons were the 13th Light Bombing Squadron flying Avro Ansons, Bristol Blenheims and Martin Baltimores and the 335 and 336 Fighting Squadrons flying Hawker Hurricane I and IIs and Spitfire V types. The RHAF squadrons in the Middle East flew a variety of missions, including convoy patrols, antisubmarine search, offensive patrols, reconnaissance, attack and interception of enemy aircraft. In Summer 1943, the Greek squadrons participated in the attack against the German Wehrmacht on the island of Crete and then from May to November 1944 in Italy. During those years, 70 Greek pilots were lost.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: During World War II, Greek pilots who were flying with the RAF achieved many victories. Rhodesian-born Wing Commander John Agorastos Plagis shot down 16 enemy aircraft over Malta and Western Europe. Lieutenant Vasilios Michael Vassiliadis was credited with 11.5 enemy aircraft over Western Europe before he was killed in action on March 15, 1945, over Germany. Steve Pisanos, an immigrant to the US in 1938, joined an Eagle Squadron of American volunteers in the RAF and fought over Western Europe. He later joined the USAAF and acquired US citizenship and continued to fly with the same squadron, now part of the USAF 4th FG. He had achieved 10 victories with the USAAF by 1944.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: After Greece's liberation in 1944, RHAF returned to Greece and subsequently played a decisive role in the Greek Civil War, which lasted until 1950. By then, it was re-equipped with Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, Spitfire Mk XVI fighters and Curtiss SB2C Helldiver bombers.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: After the end of the Greek Civil War in November 1950, Greece sent 7 Douglas C-47 Dakota transport aircraft of the 13th Transport Aircraft Squadron to South Korea to assist the United Nations. Greek aircraft operated in Korea until May 1955. Greek pilots flew thousands of missions including air evacuations, personnel transport, intelligence gathering, and supply flights. In 1952 Greece joined NATO and the Air Force was rebuilt and organized according to NATO standards. New aircraft, including jets, were introduced.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: The first jet fighter flown by the RHAF was the Republic F-84G Thunderjet in 1955. It was also flown by the first Air Force aerobatic team 337 SQ "Hellenic Flame" (Greek: Ελληνική Φλόγα). The RF-84F entered service with the 348 Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in 1956. Although the F-84G was replaced by the Canadair Sabre 2 in 1954 and 1955 after 100 units were retired from the Royal Canadian Air Force and upgraded in the United Kingdom before entering service with the RHAF, the RF-84F remained in service until 1991. The Lockheed T-33 was also delivered as a trainer in 1955. Some RT-33s were used for reconnaissance missions.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In the late 1960s, the RHAF acquired new jet aircraft. These included the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger (in service 1969–1975), the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter and the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter. The F-104 and F-5 stayed in service until the mid- to late 1980s.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In the mid-1970s the Hellenic Air Force was further modernized with deliveries of the Dassault Mirage F1CG fleet, the Vought A-7 Corsair II (including a number of TA-7Hs) and the first batch of McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 1993, the United States Air Force delivered 62 additional A-7Es and TA-7Cs increasing further the air-to-ground capabilities of the HAF. These aircraft remained in service until 2011.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Until the late 1980s the Air Force deployed missiles armed with U.S. nuclear warheads using the LTV TA-7C Corsair II. As a result of Greco-Turkish tension caused by the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the U.S. removed its nuclear weapons from Greek and Turkish alert units to storage. Greece saw this as another pro-Turkish move by NATO and withdrew its forces from NATO's military command structure from 1974 to 1980.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In March 1985 the Greek government announced the purchase of 34 F-16C and 6 F-16D Block 30 variant in the "Peace Xenia I" modernisation program. In the same month Greece ordered 36 single-seat Mirage 2000EG and 4 two-seat Mirage 2000BG, as part of the "Talos" modernization program.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Subsequently, in 1989, the first fourth-generation fighters were introduced, marking the beginning of a new era: the first Mirage 2000 EG/BG aircraft were delivered to the 114 Combat Wing in Tanagra airforce base and equipped the 331 and 332 squadrons. In January 1989 the first F-16C/D Block 30 arrived in 111 combat wing in Nea Anchialos airforce base and were allocated to the 330 "Thunder" and 346 "Jason" interceptor squadrons in Larissa airforce base.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: On March 29, 1991, the RF-84F were retired from service after 34 years and 7 months of operational life. In November 1992 more RF-4Es were delivered to the 348 "Eyes" Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 1993 the "Peace Xenia II" modernisation program began. Greece ordered 32 F-16C and 8 F-16D, Block 50 variant. The first Block 50 was delivered on July 25, 1997. These aircraft, equipped with the LANTIRN navigation and targeting pod as well as AIM-120 AMRAAM and AGM-88 HARM missiles, were allocated to the 341 "Arrow" and 347 "Perseus" squadrons in Nea Anchialos airforce base. The basic mission of 341 "Arrow" squadron is Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD). The role of 347 "Perseus" squadron is air-to-ground missions.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 1998 Greece decided, in collaboration with the German Aerospace Industry (DASA) and the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI/EAB), to upgrade 39 F-4E Phantom II fighters. The first aircraft was delivered at Andravida Air Base in December 2002. This aircraft, which was named ""Princess of Andravida"" (s/n 72-01523), was unique because it did not have the M61 Vulcan gun installed. All upgraded F-4s were equipped with the new AN/APQ-65YG radar similar to that of the F/A-18 Hornet, a new onboard Mission Control Computer (MCC), a Head Up Display, the IFF Interrogator, Multi Function Displays and were also capable of carrying a variety of advanced Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground missiles. These included the AIM-120 AMRAAM (although only the -B edition), the AIM-9M missile, the AFDS and the entire family of the Paveway (I, II and III) laser-guided bombs. These aircraft were the F-4E Peace Icarus 2000 (PI2000) or F-4E Phantom II AUP (Avionics Upgrade Program) variants. Although gradual retirement of F-4 units started in 2017, they are still operational in multi-role missions with the 338 Squadron "Ares" and the 339 Squadron "Ajax" based in Andravida Air Force Base. The F-4E Phantom II PI2000 (AUP) has been certified for use of GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bombs, making the aircraft an excellent and modern platform for precision strikes.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 2000, Greece decided to purchase a large number of fighters to replace the remaining non-upgraded F-4E Phantoms, a number of A-7 Corsairs, and the fleet of Mirage F1CGs. An order for 60 F-16 Block 52 Plus was placed. The order was for 50 single-seaters of the C version and 10 two-seaters of the D version.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Until 2001 Greece participated in NATO's "nuclear weapons sharing", using the A-7 Corsair II to deploy tactical B61 nuclear warheads from Araxos Air Force Base. Greece then strategically decided to remove all nuclear weapons under storage in Greece and did not purchase any more aircraft with nuclear mounting capabilities.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In September 2004, Greece also decided to upgrade all of its existing Mirage 2000 to the Mirage 2000-5F Mark 2 (Mk2) standard and place an additional order for 15 new Mirage 2000-5Mk2 aircraft. The project was undertaken by Dassault Aviation and the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI/EAB). The Mirage 2000-5Mk2 has a new and more powerful radar, improved long range Air-to-Ground capabilities which includes the SCALP EG Cruise Missile, a new Self-Protection System (SPS), a new Inertial Navigation System (INS), a Glass Cockpit and the addition of air refuelling capability.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Eventually In 2005, HAF was officially the first air force in the world to add the F-16 Block 52 Plus to its inventory, since the first aircraft were delivered. This advanced F-16 type is an improved version of the Block 50 featuring a more powerful radar, Conformal Fuel Tanks for longer operational range, advanced communication systems, an upgraded engine, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) and is capable of carrying more advanced weapons including the IRIS-T Air To Air missile. Three squadrons are operating with this type of F-16. These squadrons are the 337 Squadron "Ghost" in Larissa air base, the 340 Squadron "Fox" and the 343 Squadron "Star" in Souda air base.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 2007, the Greek government ordered an additional 30 F-16 fighters, 20 single seaters and 10 double seaters. However this time, the aircraft variant was the F-16C/D Block 52+ Advanced, that had been specifically modified for the Hellenic Air Force and offered as F-16 52M by Lockheed Martin, due to the improved computing power of the onboard mission computer (MMC). The difference between the Block 52+ and the Block 52+ Advanced, is the LINK 16 Communications System of the Advanced version, as well as a more powerful Mission Control Computer, an extra Multi Function Display with a movable map navigation, advanced Debriefing System and the capability to carry the RECCE Reconnaissance Pod. The first aircraft were delivered in May 2009 and fly with the 335 Squadron "Tiger" in Araxos air base.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Due to the retirement and obsolescence of units that had concluded their operational cycle (A-7E Corsair II and F-4 Phantom II), HAF was looking forward to acquiring new 4th, 4.5th or 5th generation fighters and at the same time maintain a total number of 300 advanced fighters, also according to the Supreme Air Force Council ""2007–2012 operational planning"", which was published in 2007. Candidates for the new generation aircraft were the Dassault Rafale, F-35 Lightning II, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, MiG-35 and the Sukhoi Su-35.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: During the Greek economic crisis (2008-2018), budget cuts forced HAF to ground many of its F-16s due to lack of spare parts and maintenance. Eventually in 2015, Greece placed an order for provision of spare parts in support of its F-16, F/RF-4E, C-130H/B, C-27J, T-6A/C, and other aircraft with systems/subsystems of U.S. origin. The estimated cost of this order was $160 million. In addition, some long-awaited programs were rescheduled for the future. The HAF modernization program estimated in 2007 that a purchase of 45 advance training aircraft, 15 SAR helicopters and 40–60 new fighters was necessary. Some of these programs were either postponed, or eventually cancelled.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Towards the end of the crisis and immediately after, HAF dedicated resources for the upgrade of the fleet of its existing Mirage 2000 and F-16 fighters. In 2018, Lockheed Martin was contracted to upgrade 84 F-16C/D Block 52+ and Block 52+ Advanced (Block 52M) to the latest F-16V Block 70/72 (F-16 Viper) standard, bringing capabilities to the fleet only available in 5th generation fighters such as the F-35 Lightning II. This upgrade was also considered by HAF as an essential first step for future compatibility with the F-35 fighter. While HAF's earlier F-16C/D Block 30 and Block 50 aircraft were not included in the program, they were planned to receive equipment donated from the upgraded platforms. The upgrade program is scheduled to be completed by 2027, and carried out exclusively in Greece by Hellenic Aerospace (HAI). The first 2 aircraft upgraded in the US were delivered on 12 September 2022.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In April 2019, as part of the selection process for the new HAF 5th generation fighter, Greece selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 as a replacement of its older F-16 Block 30s or F-4 Phantoms and as complementary to the F-16V upgrade program. The timeline for acquisition of the new aircraft, depended mainly on the country's fiscal plans and Washington's ability to offer a long-term payment framework. At the same time, the US Pentagon confirmed Greece as one of 5 countries to be considered as potential new customers.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In January 2020, Greece formally expressed interest in acquiring and participating in the F-35 program, following a visit by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the White House. A figure of 20 aircraft was initially floated, to be acquired following successful completion of the upgrading of the Greek F-16 fleet in 2027.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: However, reports in September and October 2020, claimed that Greece could receive at least six F-35 jets much earlier, originally built for Turkey before its ouster from the program, after the latter conducted tests of the S-400 missile systems purchased from Russia. In late-October 2020, it was made public that the United States and Greece had further discussed the sale of 18 to 24 F-35 jets to Greece, during U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Athens earlier that month. The following month, Greece officially addressed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to the US Pentagon. In that LoI, Greece even showed interest in acquiring used USAF jets, if that meant initial deliveries could be agreed as early as 2021. According to earlier reports from Greek national daily "Estia" on October 19 however, an optimistic scenario would mean that the first six aircraft could only arrive in Greece by 2022, at the earliest.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: On 30 June 2022 Greece's prime minister confirmed that the country has sent a request to the United States for the purchase of 20 F-35s, with the option of buying a second group of jets also being examined. The expected delivery date is 2027–2028.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In August 2020, Greece announced the acquisition of eighteen Rafale multirole aircraft from France. Initial reports stated that ten would be the new C-built Rafale F3-R version and eight would be older F1 & F2 versions already in use with the French Air Force, that would be given to Greece free-of-charge. However, later reports stated that all 18 aircraft would be the new F3-R version and would replace an equal number of older Mirage 2000EGM aircraft, that had not been previously upgraded to the 2000-5 Mark II version. Finally In January 2021, the official agreement with Dassault Aviation was ratified in Parliament, and included the purchase of 6 newly built, and 12 slightly used F3-R aircraft in previous service with the Armée de l'Air, for a total cost of €2.4 billion, including their armament and ground support. Theodoros Lagios, Director General of Armament and Investments of the Greek Ministry of Defence (MoD), and Éric Trappier, chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, signed the contracts in Athens on 25 January.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In June 2021, Dassault Aviation released the first photographs of Rafale F3R of the Hellenic Air Force, bearing the HAF roundel and fin flash, and in July the first aircraft was officially delivered to Greece. The aircraft were commissioned to the 332 "Falcon" All-Weather Squadron, previously operating with Mirage 2000EGM/BGM jets.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: On 11 September 2021, Greek Prime Minister at the 2021 Thessaloniki International Fair announced the purchase of 6 additional Rafale, bringing the total order number to 24. Greece officially signs new contract for the acquisition of six additional new Rafale aircraft on 24 March 2022, which follows Greece's acquisition of Rafales in January 2021 and increased number of Rafales to be operated to 24 aircraft.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In 2019, Greece reached an agreement with Israel for the lease, with an option to purchase, of 2+1 IAI Heron unmanned aerial vehicles. These aircraft would be utilised by HAF and the Hellenic Navy in land and marine border patrol missions. Greek Herons include a unique maritime configuration with sensors and communications designed to monitor the extensive water borders of Greece.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In addition, in November 2020, the Greek multinational company Intracom Defense Electronics (IDE) was placed head of a consortium that included the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUT), the University of Patras, as well as many other Greek and European companies from Cyprus, Spain and the Netherlands, for the design and construction of stealth swarm drones, codenamed Project LOTUS (Low Observable Tactical Unmanned System). It was noted that two types of drones will be built as part of Project Lotus. The first will be the "mothership", a large drone with stealth characteristics, to be designed by the AUT based on the Delaer-RX3 prototype designed by the university's Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachinery (LFMT). The rest will be smaller swarm drones built in large numbers, linked to, and supported by the mothership. These endogenous aircraft will be primarily used in border and maritime patrol missions, high value target reconnaissance and surveillance, while utilising data-fusion technologies to cooperate with HAF's future 4.5 and 5th generation fighters. According to IDE, the Air Force could completely cover its operational needs within a 5-year plan. On 9 June 2021, the Hellenic MOD approved the project for development, as part of 16 other multinational and European projects that were examined and approved by MOD technical staff.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In July 2022 the Hellenic Air Force signed a deal with General Atomics to obtain three General Atomics MQ-9C Sea Guardian UAV's. These will enhance the maritime surveillance capability of the Air Force as each aircraft can remain in the air for forty hours.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Turkish drones frequently violate Greek airspace and they can overwhelm Greek air defences. It is difficult for the likes of a Greek F16 to engage a Baykar Bayraktar TB2 if it enters Greek airspace four times a day. For this reason Rafael Advanced Defense Systems of Israel is providing the Drone Dome, a system of electronic devices. These can disrupt the communications and GPS signals of the TB2. This can deny Greek airspace to Turkish drones in the event of a war and even eliminate them with a 10 kW laser.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: The defence firm Hellenic Aerospace Industry unveiled the new Archytas UAV at the Thessaloniki International Fair in September 2022. This is a fixed-wing UAV in a pusher configuration, with four additional motors to allow the aircraft to take-off and land vertically. Archytas is primarily designed for surveillance by the Armed Forces. However, it can also be used by civil defence agencies and can be armed with up to 14 kg of weapons. It has a range of 300 km, a top speed of 120kmph and a four-hour flight endurance.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In international politics, the antagonism between Greece and Turkey has made it imperative for HAF to maintain parity with TAF. HAF and TAF pilots have engaged in mock dogfights over the Aegean sea for years, with some turning deadly such as the 1996 shooting down of a Turkish F-16 by a Greek Mirage 2000 and the 2006 crash between a Greek F-16 and a Turkish F-16.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: The regional balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean was inevitably affected during the Greek government-debt crisis. However, it was subsequently restored, influenced by negative developments in Turkey's F-35 program in 2019, rise of diplomatic tensions in Turkey-US bilateral relations during the same period, and at the same time, the decision of Greece to direct funds towards the upgrade of its existing F-16 and Mirage 2000 fleet, and eventually to acquire new 4.5 generation fighters in 2020.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: HAF is also responsible for the defence of Cypriot airspace as Cyprus Air Command has no combat jet capabilities. HAF aircraft have to be able to reach the island and remain over Cypriot airspace for prolonged periods of time and possibly under combat conditions. The distance between the nearest Greek air base on the island of Crete and Cyprus is about 700 km. Furthermore, the Air Force seeks to have the ability to strike at distances of more than 1,000 km from its bases. To that effect in September 2020, during increased tensions between Greece and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean amidst Turkish attempts to conduct hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters, Greek F-16 fighter jets taking off from Crete reached and landed, undetected, on the island of Cyprus for the first time in almost 20 years, participating in joint drills together with Cyprus and France and successfully returning to their home base after.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In May 2019, the defence ministers of Greece and North Macedonia signed a military agreement, for the policing and patrolling of North Macedonia's airspace by Greece. The agreement also included other areas such as military technology, cybersecurity, intelligence and air traffic control, all provided by the Hellenic Air Force. Since 2017 Greece and Italy also provide, in rotation, policing of the airspaces of Albania and Montenegro. Additionally, as part of Greece's conventional obligations within NATO, HAF and USAF aircraft cooperate in a variety of missions, from air patrolling, to ground target marking, and provision of air defence training to allied Balkan countries.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: As part of multilateral arrangements, Greece remains in close military cooperation with countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region and the Persian Gulf, including Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. On 14 September 2021, the Hellenic Air Force deployed a fully equipped battery of MIM-104 Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia as part of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Concept. According to official statements, Athens and Riyadh had agreed on the deployment of the Hellenic Force of Saudi Arabia (HFSA) consisting of the MIM-104 Patriot System and 120 men with their relevant gear and infrastructure for an unspecified length of time, to guard "critical energy infrastructures".


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In September 2020, Greece and the UAE conducted common air superiority drills in the Eastern Mediterranean region, that lasted almost 3 weeks. As the two air forces share very similar types of fleets, and following these common exercises, the two countries signed a mutual defence agreement further reinforcing bilateral military and political ties.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: In December 2020, Greece and Israel came closer to a €1.4 billion agreement over 20 years, for the creation of the "International Air Force Training Center (IAFTC)" in the Greek city of Kalamata. The IAFTC will provide advanced training to new Greek and Israeli military pilots, as well as lease services to international Air Force customers, utilising the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master jet trainer that will replace the North American T-2 Buckeye. The main Israeli company committed to the investment is Elbit Systems. The "International Air Force Training Center (IAFTC)" officially opened in October 2022 with fourteen Beechcraft T-6 single-engine turboprop aircraft, with M-346 and additional T-6 to join in the near future.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Previous notable aircraft operated were the Supermarine Spitfire, F-86 Sabre, Douglas C-47 Skytrain, Grumman HU-16 Albatross, Sikorsky H-19, Bell 47, Dassault Mirage F1, Lockheed T-33, Republic F-84F, Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Northrop F-5, A-7 Corsair II, and the RF-4E


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: The primary camouflage scheme utilized by the Hellenic Air Force is the "Aegean Ghost" () scheme. This is modified slightly for each aircraft type but is standard for all combat and transport aircraft in the inventory. Some training, search-and-rescue, and firefighting aircraft are colored partially or completely in high-visibility colors for identification and easier location in case of an accident. The air force also frequently uses colorful commemorative schemes to mark anniversaries and other special occasions or for display purposes. National markings are applied to all aircraft, with the national roundel consisting of concentric blue, white, and blue rings displayed on the fuselage sides and wing surfaces and a tricolor fin flash of similar blue, white, and blue horizontal stripes on the rudder. The words "Πολεμική Αεροπορία" (or simply the abbreviation "ΠΑ") are applied to the fuselage as well, although this is less common in current schemes. Aircraft in Aegean Ghost scheme may have low visibility markings applied in which blue is replaced by dark grey and white by light grey.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: Originally, many aircraft in service retained the basic color scheme they were acquired in. Prior to World War II, combat aircraft were given a green and brown top scheme with white or sky blue underside, similar to the Royal Air Force. After the war, jet fighter aircraft such as the Sabre and Starfighter would serve in a polished metal scheme. Later, most aircraft received green and brown camouflage again, consistent with the United States Air Force's South East Asia scheme, referred to as Vietnam camouflage in Greece. A-7 Corsair IIs would be some of the last aircraft to fly with this scheme, retaining it until their retirement, long after all-over grey schemes had become the normal application for Greek aircraft. C-130 Hercules transports which used South East Asia early in their careers were repainted in an overall grey theme.


title: Hellenic Air Force

text: The worst accident in the history of the Hellenic Air Force occurred on February 5, 1991, when Lockheed C-130H Hercules s/n 748 crashed into Mount Othrys during the landing approach to Nea Anchialos. Sixty-three people were killed.


title: Chastity

text: Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is "chaste" refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when making a vow of chastity, chastity means the same as celibacy.


title: Chastity

text: The words "chaste" and "chastity" stem from the Latin adjective ("cut off", "separated", "pure"). The words entered the English language around the middle of the 13th century. "Chaste" meant "virtuous", "pure from unlawful sexual intercourse") or (from the early 14th century on) as a noun, a virgin, while "chastity" meant "(sexual) purity".


title: Chastity

text: Thomas Aquinas links "(chastity)" to the Latin verb ("chastise, reprimand, correct"), with a reference to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: "Chastity takes its name from the fact that reason 'chastises' concupiscence, which, like a child, needs curbing, as the Philosopher states".


title: Chastity

text: For many Jews, Christians, and Muslims, acts of sexual nature are restricted to marriage. For unmarried persons, chastity is equivalent to sexual abstinence. Sexual acts outside of or apart from marriage, such as adultery, fornication, masturbation, and prostitution, are considered immoral due to lust.


title: Chastity

text: In many Christian traditions, chastity is synonymous with purity. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that chastity involves "the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being“, which according to one's marital status requires either having no sexual relationship, or only having sexual relations with one’s spouse. In Western Christian morality, chastity is placed opposite the deadly sin of lust, and is classified as one of seven virtues. The moderation of sexual desires is required to be virtuous. Reason, will, and desire can harmoniously work together to do what is good.


title: Chastity

text: As an emblem of inward chastity, some Christians choose to wear a cord, girdle or a cincture of one of the several Confraternities of the Cord or a purity ring. The cord is worn as a symbol of chastity in honour to a chaste saint who is asked for intercession. The purity ring is worn before holy matrimony by those who marry or for the rest of their lives by those who stay single.


title: Chastity

text: In marriage, the spouses commit to a lifelong relationship that excludes sexual intimacy with other persons. A third form of chastity, often called "vidual chastity", is expected of a woman for a period after her husband dies. For example, Anglican Bishop Jeremy Taylor defined 5 rules in "Holy Living" (1650), including abstaining from marrying "so long as she is with child by her former husband" and "within the year of mourning".


title: Chastity

text: In the Roman Catholic Church, celibacy is vowed or promised as one of the evangelical counsels by the persons of the consecrated life. Furthermore, in 306, the Synod of Elvira proscribed clergy from marrying. This was unevenly enforced until the Second Lateran Council in 1139 and found its way into Canon law. Unmarried deacons promise celibacy to their local bishop when ordained.


title: Chastity

text: Eastern Catholic priests are permitted to marry, provided they do so before ordination and outside monastic life.


title: Chastity

text: "Vows of chastity" can be taken either as part of an organised religious life (such as Roman Catholic Beguines and Beghards in the past) or on an individual basis: as a voluntary act of devotion, or as part of an ascetic lifestyle (often devoted to contemplation), or both. Some Protestant religious communities, such as the Bruderhof, take vows of chastity as part of the church membership process.


title: Chastity

text: Chastity is a central and pivotal concept in Roman Catholic praxis. Chastity's importance in traditional Roman Catholic teaching stems from the fact that it is regarded as essential in maintaining and cultivating the unity of body with spirit and thus the integrity of the human being. It is also regarded as fundamental to the practise of the Catholic life because it involves an "apprenticeship in self-mastery". By attaining mastery over one's passions, reason, will, and desire can harmoniously work together to do what is good.


title: Chastity

text: The theology of the body of the Lutheran Churches emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit, who has sanctified the bodies of Christians to be God's temple.


title: Chastity

text: Many Lutheran monks and Lutheran nuns practice celibacy, though in other Lutheran religious orders it is not compulsory.


title: Chastity

text: "Physical intimacy between husband and wife is a beautiful and sacred part of God's plan for His children. It is an expression of love within marriage and allows husband and wife to participate in the creation of life. God has commanded that this sacred power be expressed only between a man and a woman who are legally married. The law of chastity applies to both men and women. It includes strict abstinence from sexual relations before marriage and complete fidelity and loyalty to one's spouse after marriage."


title: Chastity

text: "The law of chastity requires that sexual relations be reserved for marriage between a man and a woman.


title: Chastity

text: "In addition to reserving sexual intimacy for marriage, we obey the law of chastity by controlling our thoughts, words, and actions. Jesus Christ taught, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:27–28)."


title: Chastity

text: Teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints also include that sexual expression within marriage is an important dimension of spousal bonding apart from but not necessarily avoiding its procreative result.


title: Chastity

text: "And [mention] the one who guarded her chastity, so We blew into her [garment] through Our angel [Gabriel], and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds." (21 :91)


title: Chastity

text: "And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen. Then We sent to her Our Angel, and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man. She said, "Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, [so leave me], if you should be fearing of Allah." He said, "I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy." She said, "How can I have a boy while no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?"" (19:17–20)


title: Chastity

text: "And do not approach unlawful sexual intercourse. Indeed, it is ever an immorality and is evil as a way." (17:32)


title: Chastity

text: "And those who do not invoke with Allah another deity or kill the soul which Allah has forbidden [to be killed], except by right, and do not commit unlawful sexual intercourse And whoever should do that will meet a penalty. Multiplied for him is the punishment on the Day of Resurrection, and he will abide therein humiliated – Except for those who repent, believe and do righteous work. For them Allah will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful." (25:68–70)


title: Chastity

text: "Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so – for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward." (33:35)