title: Pakistan International Airlines

text: The airline has lost more than 30 aircraft in crashes and other events, including 20 fatal crashes. There have also been at least eight hijacking incidents involving the airline's aircraft between 1971 and 2017.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are "Dulce et Decorum est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility", "Spring Offensive" and "Strange Meeting". Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918, a week before the war's end, at the age of 25.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen was born on 18 March 1893 at Plas Wilmot, a house in Weston Lane, near Oswestry in Shropshire. He was the eldest of Thomas and (Harriett) Susan Owen ("née" Shaw)'s four children; his siblings were Mary Millard, (William) Harold, and Colin Shaw Owen. When Wilfred was born, his parents lived in a comfortable house owned by his grandfather, Edward Shaw.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: After Edward's death in January 1897, and the house's sale in March, the family lodged in the back streets of Birkenhead. There Thomas Owen temporarily worked in the town employed by a railway company. Thomas transferred to Shrewsbury in April 1897 where the family lived with Thomas' parents in Canon Street.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Thomas Owen transferred back to Birkenhead in 1898 when he became stationmaster at Woodside station. The family lived with him at three successive homes in the Tranmere district area of the town. They then moved back to Shrewsbury in 1907. Wilfred Owen was educated at the Birkenhead Institute and at Shrewsbury Technical School (later known as the Wakeman School).


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen discovered his poetic vocation in about 1904 during a holiday spent in Cheshire. He was raised as an Anglican of the evangelical type, and in his youth was a devout believer, in part thanks to his strong relationship with his mother, which lasted throughout his life. His early influences included the Bible and the Romantic poets, particularly Wordsworth and John Keats.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen's last two years of formal education saw him as a pupil-teacher at the Wyle Cop school in Shrewsbury. In 1911 he passed the matriculation exam for the University of London, but not with the first-class honours needed for a scholarship, which in his family's circumstances was the only way he could have afforded to attend.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: In return for free lodging, and some tuition for the entrance exam (this has been questioned) Owen worked as lay assistant to the Vicar of Dunsden near Reading, living in the vicarage from September 1911 to February 1913. During this time he attended classes at University College, Reading (now the University of Reading), in botany and later, at the urging of the head of the English Department, took free lessons in Old English. His time spent at Dunsden parish led him to disillusionment with the Church, both in its ceremony and its failure to provide aid for those in need.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: From 1913 he worked as a private tutor teaching English and French at the Berlitz School of Languages in Bordeaux, France, and later with a family. There he met the older French poet Laurent Tailhade, with whom he later corresponded in French. When war broke out, Owen did not rush to enlist – and even considered joining the French army – but eventually returned to England.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: On 21 October 1915, he enlisted in the Artists Rifles. For the next seven months, he trained at Hare Hall Camp in Essex. On 4 June 1916, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant (on probation) in the Manchester Regiment. Initially Owen held his troops in contempt for their loutish behaviour, and in a letter to his mother described his company as "expressionless lumps". However, his imaginative existence was to be changed dramatically by a number of traumatic experiences. He fell into a shell hole and suffered concussion; he was caught in the blast of a trench mortar shell and spent several days unconscious on an embankment lying amongst the remains of one of his fellow officers. Soon afterward, Owen was diagnosed with neurasthenia or shell shock and sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment. It was while recuperating at Craiglockhart that he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, an encounter that was to transform Owen's life.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Whilst at Craiglockhart he made friends in Edinburgh's artistic and literary circles, and did some teaching at the Tynecastle High School, in a poor area of the city. In November he was discharged from Craiglockhart, judged fit for light regimental duties. He spent a contented and fruitful winter in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and in March 1918 was posted to the Northern Command Depot at Ripon. While in Ripon he composed or revised a number of poems, including "" and "". His 25th birthday was spent quietly at Ripon Cathedral, which is dedicated to his namesake, St. Wilfrid of Hexham.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen returned in July 1918, to active service in France, although he might have stayed on home-duty indefinitely. His decision to return was probably the result of Sassoon's being sent back to England, after being shot in the head in an apparent "friendly fire" incident, and put on sick-leave for the remaining duration of the war. Owen saw it as his duty to add his voice to that of Sassoon, that the horrific realities of the war might continue to be told. Sassoon was violently opposed to the idea of Owen returning to the trenches, threatening to "stab [him] in the leg" if he tried it. Aware of his attitude, Owen did not inform him of his action until he was once again in France.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: At the very end of August 1918, Owen returned to the front line – perhaps imitating Sassoon's example. On 1 October 1918, Owen led units of the Second Manchesters to storm a number of enemy strong points near the village of Joncourt. For his courage and leadership in the Joncourt action, he was awarded the Military Cross, an award he had always sought in order to justify himself as a war poet, but the award was not gazetted until 15 February 1919. The citation followed on 30 July 1919:


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal, exactly one week (almost to the hour) before the signing of the Armistice which ended the war, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant the day after his death. His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day, as the church bells in Shrewsbury were ringing out in celebration. Owen is buried at Ors Communal Cemetery, Ors, in northern France. The inscription on his gravestone, chosen by his mother Susan, is a quotation from his poetry:


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen is regarded by many as the greatest poet of the First World War, known for his verse about the horrors of trench and gas warfare. He had been writing poetry for some years before the war, himself dating his poetic beginnings to a stay at Broxton by the Hill when he was ten years old.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: The poetry of William Butler Yeats was a significant influence for Owen, but Yeats did not reciprocate Owen's admiration, excluding him from "The Oxford Book of Modern Verse", a decision Yeats later defended, saying Owen was "all blood, dirt, and sucked sugar stick" and "unworthy of the poet's corner of a country newspaper". Yeats elaborated: "In all the great tragedies, tragedy is a joy to the man who dies ... If war is necessary in our time and place, it is best to forget its suffering as we do the discomfort of fever ..."


title: Wilfred Owen

text: The Romantic poets Keats and Shelley influenced much of his early writing and poetry. His great friend, the poet Siegfried Sassoon, later had a profound effect on his poetic voice, and Owen's most famous poems ("Dulce et Decorum est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth") show direct results of Sassoon's influence. Manuscript copies of the poems survive, annotated in Sassoon's handwriting. Owen's poetry would eventually be more widely acclaimed than that of his mentor. While his use of pararhyme with heavy reliance on assonance was innovative, he was not the only poet at the time to use these particular techniques. He was, however, one of the first to experiment with it extensively.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: His poetry itself underwent significant changes in 1917. As a part of his therapy at Craiglockhart, Owen's doctor, Arthur Brock, encouraged Owen to translate his experiences, specifically the experiences he relived in his dreams, into poetry. Sassoon, who was becoming influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis, aided him here, showing Owen through example what poetry could do. Sassoon's use of satire influenced Owen, who tried his hand at writing "in Sassoon's style". Further, the content of Owen's verse was undeniably changed by his work with Sassoon. Sassoon's emphasis on realism and "writing from experience" was contrary to Owen's hitherto romantic-influenced style, as seen in his earlier sonnets. Owen was to take both Sassoon's gritty realism and his own romantic notions and create a poetic synthesis that was both potent and sympathetic, as summarised by his famous phrase "the pity of war". In this way, Owen's poetry is quite distinctive, and he is, by many, considered a greater poet than Sassoon. Nonetheless, Sassoon contributed to Owen's popularity by his strong promotion of his poetry, both before and after Owen's death, and his editing was instrumental in the making of Owen as a poet.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen's poems had the benefit of strong patronage, and it was a combination of Sassoon's influence, support from Edith Sitwell, and the preparation of a new and fuller edition of the poems in 1931 by Edmund Blunden that ensured his popularity, coupled with a revival of interest in his poetry in the 1960s which plucked him out of a relatively exclusive readership into the public eye. Though he had plans for a volume of verse, for which he had written a "Preface", he never saw his own work published apart from those poems he included in "The Hydra", the magazine he edited at Craiglockhart War Hospital, and "Miners", which was published in "The Nation".


title: Wilfred Owen

text: There were many other influences on Owen's poetry, including his mother. His letters to her provide an insight into Owen's life at the front, and the development of his philosophy regarding the war. Graphic details of the horror Owen witnessed were never spared. Owen's experiences with religion also heavily influenced his poetry, notably in poems such as "Anthem for Doomed Youth", in which the ceremony of a funeral is re-enacted not in a church, but on the battlefield itself, and "At a Calvary near the Ancre", which comments on the Crucifixion of Christ. Owen's experiences in war led him further to challenge his religious beliefs, claiming in his poem "Exposure" that "love of God seems dying".


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Only five of Owen's poems were published before his death, one in fragmentary form. His best known poems include "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility", "Dulce Et Decorum Est", "The Parable of the Old Men and the Young" and "Strange Meeting".


title: Wilfred Owen

text: However, most of them were published posthumously: "Poems" (1920),"The Poems of Wilfred Owen" (1931),"The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen" (1963),"The Complete Poems and Fragments" (1983); fundamental in this last collection is the poem "Soldier's Dream", that deals with Owen's conception of war.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen's full unexpurgated opus is in the academic two-volume work "The Complete Poems and Fragments" (1994) by Jon Stallworthy. Many of his poems have never been published in popular form.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: In 1975 Mrs. Harold Owen, Wilfred's sister-in-law, donated all of the manuscripts, photographs and letters which her late husband had owned to the University of Oxford's English Faculty Library. As well as the personal artifacts, this also includes all of Owen's personal library and an almost complete set of "The Hydra" – the magazine of Craiglockhart War Hospital. These can be accessed by any member of the public on application in advance to the English Faculty librarian.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin holds a large collection of Owen's family correspondence.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen held Siegfried Sassoon in an esteem not far from hero-worship, remarking to his mother that he was "not worthy to light [Sassoon's] pipe". The relationship clearly had a profound impact on Owen, who wrote in his first letter to Sassoon after leaving Craiglockhart "You have fixed my life – however short". Sassoon wrote that he took "an instinctive liking to him", and recalled their time together "with affection". On the evening of 3 November 1917 they parted, Owen having been discharged from Craiglockhart. He was stationed on home-duty in Scarborough for several months, during which time he associated with members of the artistic circle into which Sassoon had introduced him, which included Robbie Ross and Robert Graves. He also met H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett, and it was during this period he developed the stylistic voice for which he is now recognised. Many of his early poems were penned while stationed at the Clarence Garden Hotel, now the Clifton Hotel in Scarborough's North Bay. A blue tourist plaque on the hotel marks its association with Owen.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Sassoon and Owen kept in touch through correspondence, and after Sassoon was shot in the head in July 1918 and sent back to the UK to recover, they met in August and spent what Sassoon described as "the whole of a hot cloudless afternoon together." They never saw each other again. About three weeks later, Owen wrote to bid Sassoon farewell, as he was on the way back to France, and they continued to communicate. After the Armistice, Sassoon waited in vain for word from Owen, only to be told of his death several months later. The loss grieved Sassoon greatly, and he was never "able to accept that disappearance philosophically." Many years later, he is said, snobbishly, to have told Stephen Spender that he found Owen's grammar school accent "embarrassing". However, in his own account of his friendship with Owen, which appeared in his 1945 autobiography, "Siegfried's Journey", Sassoon conjures up a clear picture of Owen's personality, and writes with great tenderness of the time they spent together. Calling Owen's death "a chasm in my private existence", Sassoon expressed regret at what he regarded as his "slowness in discovering that [Owen] was to be of high significance for me, both as a poet and friend...and there was much comfort in his companionship".


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Though it has been suggested that Owen hoped to marry Albertina Dauthieu, at the time living in Milnathort, Scotland, had he survived the war, Robert Graves and Sacheverell Sitwell, both of whom knew him, believed that Owen was homosexual, and that homoeroticism was a central element in much of his poetry. Through Sassoon, Owen was introduced to a sophisticated homosexual literary circle which included Oscar Wilde's friend Robbie Ross, writer and poet Osbert Sitwell, and Scottish writer C. K. Scott Moncrieff, the translator of Marcel Proust. This contact, it is argued, broadened Owen's outlook, and increased his confidence in incorporating homoerotic elements into his work. Historians have debated whether Owen had an affair with Scott Moncrieff in May 1918; the latter had dedicated various works to a "Mr W.O.", but Owen never responded.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Throughout Owen's lifetime and for decades after, homosexual activity between men was a punishable offence throughout the United Kingdom, and the account of Owen's sexual development has been somewhat obscured because his brother Harold removed what he considered discreditable passages in Owen's letters and diaries after the death of their mother. Andrew Motion wrote of Owen's relationship with Sassoon: "On the one hand, Sassoon's wealth, posh connections and aristocratic manner appealed to the snob in Owen: on the other, Sassoon's homosexuality admitted Owen to a style of living and thinking that he found naturally sympathetic."


title: Wilfred Owen

text: An important turning point in Owen scholarship occurred in 1987 when the "New Statesman" published "The Truth Untold" by Jonathan Cutbill, the literary executor of Edward Carpenter, which attacked the academic suppression of Owen as a poet of homosexual experience. Amongst the article's contentions was that the poem "Shadwell Stair", previously alleged to be mysterious, was a straightforward elegy to homosexual soliciting in an area of the London docks once renowned for it. In June 2022 the poem was included in the anthology, "100 Queer Poems," compiled by Andrew McMillan and Mary Jean Chan.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: On 11 November 1985, Owen was one of the 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The inscription on the stone is taken from Owen's "Preface" to his poems: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity." There is also a small museum at the Craiglockhart War Hospital, now a Napier University building, containing the "War Poets Collection".


title: Wilfred Owen

text: The forester's house in Ors where Owen spent his last night, Maison forestière de l'Ermitage, has been transformed by Turner Prize nominee Simon Patterson into an art installation and permanent memorial to Owen and his poetry, which opened to the public on 1 October 2011.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Susan Owen's letter to Rabindranath Tagore marked, Shrewsbury, 1 August 1920, reads: "I have been trying to find courage to write to you ever since I heard that you were in London – but the desire to tell you something is finding its way into this letter today. The letter may never reach you, for I do not know how to address it, tho' I feel sure your name upon the envelope will be sufficient. It is nearly two years ago, that my dear eldest son went out to the War for the last time and the day he said goodbye to me – we were looking together across the sun-glorified sea – looking towards France, with breaking hearts – when he, my poet son, said those wonderful words of yours – beginning at 'When I go from hence, let this be my parting word' – and when his pocket book came back to me – I found these words written in his dear writing – with your name beneath."


title: Wilfred Owen

text: To commemorate Wilfred's life and poetry, The Wilfred Owen Association was formed in 1989. Since its formation the Association has established permanent public memorials in Shrewsbury and Oswestry. In addition to readings, talks, visits and performances, it promotes and encourages exhibitions, conferences, awareness and appreciation of Owen's poetry. Peter Owen, Wilfred Owen's nephew, was President of the Association until his death in July 2018. The Association's Patrons, listed in the same order as on the Association's website, are Peter Florence, Helen McPhail, Philip Guest, Dr Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury 2002–2012) and Sir Daniel Day-Lewis; Grey Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie (1939–2021) was also a Patron. The Association presents a biennial Poetry Award to honour a poet for a sustained body of work that includes memorable war poems; previous recipients include Sir Andrew Motion (Poet Laureate 1999–2009), Dannie Abse, Christopher Logue, Gillian Clarke and Seamus Heaney. Owen Sheers was awarded the prize in September 2018. In November 2015, actor Jason Isaacs unveiled a tribute to Owen at the former Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh where Owen was treated for shell shock during WWI.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Stephen MacDonald's play, "Not About Heroes", first performed in 1982, takes as its subject matter the friendship between Owen and Sassoon, and begins with their meeting at Craiglockhart during World War I.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Pat Barker's historical novel, "Regeneration" (1991), describes the meeting and relationship between Sassoon and Owen, acknowledging that, from Sassoon's perspective, the meeting had a profoundly significant effect on Owen. Owen's treatment with his own doctor, Arthur Brock, is also touched upon briefly. Owen's death is described in the third book of Barker's Regeneration trilogy, "The Ghost Road" (1995). In the 1997 film "Regeneration", Stuart Bunce played Owen.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen was mentioned as a source of inspiration for one of the correspondents in the epistolary novel, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" (2008), by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: In Harry Turtledove's multi-novel "Southern Victory Series", the title of the third volume, "Walk in Hell", is taken from a line in "Mental Cases". That part of the series is set during an alternate history version of World War I, which sees Canada invaded and occupied by United States troops. On the title page, Owen is acknowledged as the source of the quote.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: "The Burying Party" (2018), depicts Owen's final year, from his time at Craiglockhart Hospital up to the Battle of the Sambre (1918). Matthew Staite stars as Owen and Joyce Branagh as his mother Susan.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Owen, portrayed by Matthew Tennyson, and his friendship with Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden), are depicted in "Benediction", a 2021 biographical-drama film, directed by Terence Davies.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: His poetry has been reworked into various formats. For example, Benjamin Britten incorporated eight of Owen's poems into his "War Requiem", along with words from the Latin Mass for the Dead ("Missa pro Defunctis"). The "Requiem" was commissioned for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral and first performed there on 30 May 1962. Derek Jarman adapted it for the screen in 1988, with the 1963 recording as the soundtrack.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Also in 1982, 10,000 Maniacs recorded a song titled "Anthem for Doomed Youth", loosely based on the poem, in Fredonia, New York. The recording appeared on their first EP release "Human Conflict Number Five" and later on the compilation "". Also appearing on the "Hope Chest" album was the song "The Latin One", a reference to the title of Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" on which the song is based.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: In 1992, Anathema released "The Crestfallen EP", with the song "They Die" quoting lines from Owen's poem "The End", which also formed the epitaph on his grave in Ors.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Rudimentary Peni issued their single "Wilfred Owen the Chances" in 2009. The lyrics are from Owen's poem, "The Chances".


title: Wilfred Owen

text: Wirral musician Dean Johnson created the musical "Bullets and Daffodils", based on music set to Owen's poetry, in 2010.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: In 2015, the British indie rock band, The Libertines, released an album entitled "Anthems For Doomed Youth"; this featured the track "Anthem for Doomed Youth", named after Owen's poem.


title: Wilfred Owen

text: His poetry is sampled multiple times on the 2000 Jedi Mind Tricks album "Violent by Design". Producer Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind has been widely acclaimed for his sampling on the album, and inclusion of Owen's poetry.


title: Syfy

text: Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Launched on September 24, 1992, the channel broadcasts programming relating to the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres.


title: Syfy

text: In 1989, in Boca Raton, Florida, communications attorneys and cable TV entrepreneurs Mitchell Rubenstein and his wife and business partner Laurie Silvers devised the concept for the Sci-Fi Channel, and signed up 8 of the top 10 cable TV operators as well as licensing exclusive rights to the British TV series "Doctor Who" (which shifted over from PBS to Sci-Fi Channel), "Dark Shadows", and the cult series "The Prisoner". In 1992, the channel was sold by Rubenstein and Silvers to USA Networks, then a joint venture between Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures. Rubenstein and Silvers became vice-chairs of USA Networks. The channel was seen as a natural fit with classic films and television series that both studios had in their vaults, including Universal's "Dracula", "Frankenstein", and the Rod Serling TV series "Night Gallery", along with Paramount's "" television series. "Star Trek"s creator Gene Roddenberry and author Isaac Asimov were recruited by Rubenstein and Silvers to serve on the initial advisory board, but both Gene Roddenberry and Isaac Asimov had died by the time the channel finally launched on September 24, 1992. Rubenstein recalled: "The first thing that was on the screen was 'Dedicated to the memories of Isaac Asimov and Gene Roddenberry'." Leonard Nimoy was master of ceremonies at the channel's launch party, held at the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan. Asimov's widow Janet and Roddenberry's widow Majel Barrett were both in attendance. The first program shown on the network was the film "Star Wars".


title: Syfy

text: In 1994, Paramount was sold to Viacom, followed by Seagram's purchase of a controlling stake in MCA (of which Universal was a subsidiary) from the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company the next year. In 1997, Viacom sold its stake in USA Networks to Universal, who spun off all its television assets to Barry Diller the next year into the new company Studios USA. Three years later, Diller would sell Studios USA back to Universal, by then a subsidiary of Vivendi SA (at the time known as Vivendi Universal). Vivendi's film and television production and cable television assets were then merged with General Electric's NBC to form NBC Universal in 2004. In 2010, Comcast purchased Syfy's parent company NBCUniversal. Comcast was one of the original cable TV operators to carry the channel.


title: Syfy

text: A high definition version of the channel launched on October 3, 2007, on DirecTV. In 2013, Syfy was given the James Randi Educational Foundation's Pigasus Award for what was described as questionable reality programming involving paranormal subjects.


title: Syfy

text: From 1992 to 1999, the network's first logo consisted of a planet with a ring, made to look like Saturn, with "SCI-FI CHANNEL" written on it. The network's second logo, which was used from 1999 to 2002, dropped the hyphen and the word "CHANNEL" from the name. The network's third and final "ringed planet" logo ran from 2002 to 2009, and was designed by Lambie-Nairn. The logo made its debut on December 2, 2002, with the launch of the Steven Spielberg miniseries "Taken". The network also launched a new image campaign with the tagline "If", which expresses the limitless possibilities of the imagination. Identification bumps depicted surreal situations such as a baby breathing fire, as well as a woman in a stately sitting room kissing a bug-eyed, big-eared animal.


title: Syfy

text: On March 16, 2009, NBCUniversal announced that Sci Fi was rebranding as "Syfy". Network officials also noted that, unlike the generic term "sci fi", which represents the entire genre, the term "Syfy" as a sensational spelling can be protected by trademark and therefore would be easier to market on other goods or services without fear of confusion with other companies' products. The only significant previous use of the term "Syfy" in relation to science fiction was by the website SyFy Portal, which became Airlock Alpha after selling the brand to an unnamed company in February 2009.


title: Syfy

text: The name change was greeted with initial negativity, with people deliberately mispronouncing "Syfy" as or to make fun of the name change. The parody news anchor Stephen Colbert made fun of the name change on "The Colbert Report" by giving the channel a "Tip of the Hat" for "spelling the name the way it's pronounced" and noting that "the tide is turning in my long fought battle against the insidious 'soft C. The new name took effect on July 7, 2009. Syfy has since added reality shows and edged further from strictly science fiction, fantasy and horror programming.


title: Syfy

text: The rebranding efforts at NBC Universal's Sci Fi Channels worldwide resulted in most rebranding as "Syfy" or "Syfy Universal"; however, over one-third of the channels did not take on "Syfy" as any part of their names: channels in Japan and the Philippines rebranded to or were replaced by Universal Channel, while each of the channels in Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia would become Sci Fi Universal. In Polish, "Syfy" does not suggest imagination or science fiction, but rather something gross, without value or even syphilis. In Australia, NBCUniversal was a partner in SF alongside Foxtel, CBS Studios International and Sony Pictures Television; after the channel shut down in 2013, NBCUniversal launched a local version of Syfy in 2014.


title: Syfy

text: On May 11, 2017, in honor of the network's upcoming 25th anniversary, Syfy unveiled a major rebranding that took effect on-air June 19. The new branding was intended to re-position the channel back towards targeting fans of the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Network head Chris McCumber explained that the network's goal was to "put fans at the center of everything we do", and explained a stacked, square-shaped form of the logo as being akin to a "badge". Syfy also planned to place a larger focus on its genre news division Syfy Wire, disclosing the possibility of extending the website to television as well.


title: Syfy

text: Syfy's original programming includes made-for-cable movies, miniseries, and television series. Under NBCUniversal ownership, the channel has expanded into general-interest programming outside of the sci-fi genre to target a more mainstream audience. Such programming has included crime dramas, "WCG Ultimate Gamer", and professional wrestling from WWE (including "ECW", "NXT", and "SmackDown").


title: Syfy

text: Syfy has been used for overflow sports and sports entertainment programming from its sister networks. It has participated in NBC Sports' "Championship Sunday" effort to broadcast all matches on the final matchday of the Premier League soccer season across NBCUniversal cable networks. In February 2022, "WWE Raw" and "NXT" aired on Syfy for two weeks due to USA Network's broadcasts of the 2022 Winter Olympics.


title: Syfy

text: During its early years, Syfy aired Japanese anime films and original video animations. On June 11, 2007, the channel launched a weekly two-hour programming block called "Ani-Monday", featuring English dubs of various anime series licensed by Manga Entertainment. During February 2008, the channel also aired anime on Tuesday nights in a second programming block. In July 2009, Syfy announced that they had renewed and expanded their licensing agreement with Manga Entertainment to add a two-hour block of horror anime (also called "Ani-Monday") to sister channel Chiller. Syfy's anime block was later moved to Thursday nights, starting March 14, 2011, where it remained until all anime programming was dropped on June 9, 2011.


title: Syfy

text: On April 20, 2019, Syfy launched a new late night adult animation block called "TZGZ" which aired until March 13, 2021.


title: Syfy

text: Sci Fi Pictures original films are independently-made B-movies with production budgets of $1 million to $2 million each. The initiative was spearheaded by Thomas Vitale in 2001, and was managed by Vitale, Chris Regina, and Ray Cannella, with the later additions of Karen O'Hara and Macy Lao. Syfy is also one of the sponsors for the Coalition for Freedom of Information.


title: Syfy

text: Syfy's website launched in 1995, at SciFi.com, under the name "The Dominion"; it dropped the name in 2000. The site has won a Webby Award and a Flash Forward Award.


title: Syfy

text: From 2000 to 2005, SciFi.com published original science fiction short stories in a section called "Sci Fiction", edited by Ellen Datlow, who won a 2005 Hugo Award for her work there. The stories themselves won a World Fantasy Award, the first Theodore Sturgeon Award for online fiction (for Lucius Shepard's novella "Over Yonder"), and four of the Science Fiction Writers of America's Nebula Awards, including the first for original online fiction (for Linda Nagata's novella "Goddesses").


title: Syfy

text: On April 22, 2006, the site launched Sci Fi Pedia, a commercial wiki on topics including anime, comics, fandom, fantasy, games, horror, science fiction, toys, UFOs, genre-related art and audio, and the paranormal. In 2009, Sci Fi Pedia was shut down without explanation.


title: Syfy

text: As part of the channel's rebranding in 2009, the URL was changed to Syfy.com. As of 2010, Syfy.com began to contain webisode series including "" (as of October 26, 2010), "The Mercury Men" (as of July 25, 2011), and "Nuclear Family" (as of October 15, 2012).


title: Syfy

text: SyfyGames.com is an online games portal which offers free-to-play MMO and casual games. The site features predominantly sci-fi and fantasy games from third-party developers. In April 2015, the News section of SyfyGames.com was rebranded to feature "news from G4".


title: Syfy

text: In 2010, Syfy Games signed a deal with the now defunct publisher THQ to co-produce "De Blob 2". Syfy Games would also co-produce "".


title: Syfy

text: Syfy Wire (formerly Sci-Fi Wire and Blastr) is a website operated by Syfy featuring coverage of news in the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres. The site was rebranded in 2010 as Blastr, with the addition of feature articles, guest columnists (such as Phil Plait), popular science news and coverage, and video content. In December 2016, Blastr rebranded as Syfy Wire; editor-in-chief Adam Swiderski stated that this change was to closer associate the website with the Syfy television channel.


title: Syfy

text: As of March 2018, Syfy Wire releases five regular podcasts, including two recap series following "The Expanse" and the final season of "Colony", as well as "The Fandom Files", which features interviews with public figures about their pop culture obsessions. Guests have included Leland Chee and Mike Daniels of the Green Bay Packers.


title: Syfy

text: "Science Fiction Weekly" was an online magazine started on August 15, 1995, and edited by Craig Engler and Brooks Peck. In April 1996, it began appearing exclusively on "The Dominion" as part of a partnership with the site, before being sold to the Sci Fi Channel completely in 1999. The publication covered various aspects of science fiction, including news, reviews, original art, and interviews, until it merged with Sci-Fi Wire in January 2009.


title: Airport

text: An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off and to land or a helipad, and often includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminals, to maintain and monitor aircraft. Larger airports may have airport aprons, taxiway bridges, air traffic control centres, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. In some countries, the US in particular, airports also typically have one or more fixed-base operators, serving general aviation.


title: Airport

text: Operating airports is extremely complicated, with a complex system of aircraft support services, passenger services, and aircraft control services contained within the operation. Thus airports can be major employers, as well as important hubs for tourism and other kinds of transit. Because they are sites of operation for heavy machinery, a number of regulations and safety measures have been implemented in airports, in order to reduce hazards. Additionally, airports have major local environmental impacts, as both large sources of air pollution, noise pollution and other environmental impacts, making them sites that acutely experience the environmental effects of aviation. Airports are also vulnerable infrastructure to extreme weather, climate change caused sea level rise and other disasters.


title: Airport

text: The terms "aerodrome", "airfield", and "airstrip" also refer to airports, and the terms "heliport", "seaplane base", and "STOLport" refer to airports dedicated exclusively to helicopters, seaplanes, and short take-off and landing aircraft.


title: Airport

text: In colloquial use in certain environments, the terms "airport" and "aerodrome" are often interchanged. However, in general, the term "airport" may imply or confer a certain stature upon the aviation facility that other aerodromes may not have achieved. In some jurisdictions, "airport" is a legal term of art reserved exclusively for those aerodromes certified or licensed as airports by the relevant civil aviation authority after meeting specified certification criteria or regulatory requirements.


title: Airport

text: That is to say, all airports are aerodromes, but not all aerodromes are airports. In jurisdictions where there is no legal distinction between "aerodrome" and "airport", which term to use in the name of an aerodrome may be a commercial decision. In US technical/legal usage, "landing area" is used instead of "aerodrome", and "airport" means "a landing area used regularly by aircraft for receiving or discharging passengers or cargo".


title: Airport

text: An airport solely serving helicopters is called a heliport. An airport for use by seaplanes and amphibious aircraft is called a seaplane base. Such a base typically includes a stretch of open water for takeoffs and landings, and seaplane docks for tying-up.


title: Airport

text: An international airport has additional facilities for customs and passport control as well as incorporating all the aforementioned elements. Such airports rank among the most complex and largest of all built typologies, with 15 of the top 50 buildings by floor area being airport terminals.


title: Airport

text: Smaller or less-developed airfields, which represent the vast majority, often have a single runway shorter than . Larger airports for airline flights generally have paved runways of or longer. Skyline Airport in Inkom, Idaho has a runway that is only long.


title: Airport

text: In the United States, the minimum dimensions for dry, hard landing fields are defined by the FAR Landing And Takeoff Field Lengths. These include considerations for safety margins during landing and takeoff.


title: Airport

text: The longest public-use runway in the world is at Qamdo Bamda Airport in China. It has a length of . The world's widest paved runway is at Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport in Russia and is wide.


title: Airport

text: , the CIA stated that there were approximately 44,000 "airports or airfields recognizable from the air" around the world, including 15,095 in the US, the US having the most in the world.


title: Airport

text: Most of the world's large airports are owned by local, regional, or national government bodies who then lease the airport to private corporations who oversee the airport's operation. For example, in the UK the state-owned British Airports Authority originally operated eight of the nation's major commercial airports – it was subsequently privatized in the late 1980s, and following its takeover by the Spanish Ferrovial consortium in 2006, has been further divested and downsized to operating just Heathrow. Germany's Frankfurt Airport is managed by the quasi-private firm Fraport. While in India GMR Group operates, through joint ventures, Indira Gandhi International Airport and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Bengaluru International Airport is controlled by Fairfax .Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Mangalore International Airport, Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Jaipur International Airport, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport are operated by Adani Group through a Public Private Partnership wherein Adani Group, the operator pays Airports Authority of India, the owner of the airports, a predetermined sum of money based on the number of passengers handled by the airports. The rest of India's airports are managed by the Airports Authority of India. In Pakistan nearly all civilian airports are owned and operated by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority except for Sialkot International Airport which has the distinction of being the first privately owned public airport in Pakistan and South Asia.


title: Airport

text: In the US, commercial airports are generally operated directly by government entities or government-created airport authorities (also known as port authorities), such as the Los Angeles World Airports authority that oversees several airports in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Los Angeles International Airport.


title: Airport

text: In Canada, the federal authority, Transport Canada, divested itself of all but the remotest airports in 1999/2000. Now most airports in Canada are owned and operated by individual legal authorities or are municipally owned.


title: Airport

text: Many US airports still lease part or all of their facilities to outside firms, who operate functions such as retail management and parking. All US commercial airport runways are certified by the FAA under the Code of Federal Regulations Title 14 Part 139, "Certification of Commercial Service Airports" but maintained by the local airport under the regulatory authority of the FAA.


title: Airport

text: Despite the reluctance to privatize airports in the US (contrary to the FAA sponsoring a privatization program since 1996), the government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) arrangement is the standard for the operation of commercial airports in the rest of the world.


title: Airport

text: The Airport & Airway Trust Fund (AATF) was created by the Airport and Airway Development in 1970 which finances aviation programs in the United States. Airport Improvement Program (AIP), Facilities and Equipment (F&E), and Research, Engineering, and Development (RE&D) are the three major accounts of Federal Aviation Administration which are financed by the AATF, as well as pays for the FAA's Operation and Maintenance (O&M) account. The funding of these accounts are dependent on the taxes the airports generate of revenues. Passenger tickets, fuel, and cargo tax are the taxes that are paid by the passengers and airlines help fund these accounts.


title: Airport

text: Airports revenues are divided into three major parts: aeronautical revenue, non-aeronautical revenue, and non-operating revenue. Aeronautical revenue makes up 56%, non-aeronautical revenue makes up 40%, and non-operating revenue makes up 4% of the total revenue of airports.


title: Airport

text: Aeronautical revenue are generated through airline rents and landing, passenger service, parking, and hangar fees. Landing fees are charged per aircraft for landing an airplane in the airport property. Landing fees are calculated through the landing weight and the size of the aircraft which varies but most of the airports have a fixed rate and a charge extra for extra weight. Passenger service fees are charges per passengers for the facilities used on a flight like water, food, wifi and shows which is paid while paying for an airline ticket. Aircraft parking is also a major revenue source for airports. Aircraft are parked for a certain amount of time before or after takeoff and have to pay to park there. Every airport has its own rates of parking, for example, John F Kennedy airport in New York City charges $45 per hour for a plane of 100,000 pounds and the price increases with weight.


title: Airport

text: Non-aeronautical revenue is gained through things other than aircraft operations. It includes lease revenue from compatible land-use development, non-aeronautical building leases, retail and concession sales, rental car operations, parking and in-airport advertising. Concession revenue is one big part of non-aeronautical revenue airports makes through duty free, bookstores, restaurants and money exchange. Car parking is a growing source of revenue for airports, as more people use the parking facilities of the airport. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago charges $2 per hour for every car.


title: Airport

text: Airports are divided into landside and airside zones. The landside is subject to fewer special laws and is part of the public realm, while access to the airside zone is tightly controlled. Landside facilities may include publicly accessible airport check-in desks, shops and ground transportation facilities. The airside area includes all parts of the airport around the aircraft, and the parts of the buildings that are restricted to staff, and sections of these extended to travelling, airside shopping, dining, or waiting passengers. Depending on the airport, passengers and staff must be checked by security or border control before being permitted to enter the airside zone. Conversely, passengers arriving from an international flight must pass through border control and customs to access the landside area, in which they exit, unless in airside transit. Most multi-terminal airports have (variously termed) flight/passenger/air connections buses, moving walkways and/or people movers for inter-terminal airside transit. Their airlines can arrange for baggage to be routed directly to the passenger's destination. Most major airports issue a secure keycard, an airside pass to employees, to assist in their reliable, standardized and efficient verification of identity.


title: Airport

text: A terminal is a building with passenger facilities. Small airports have one terminal. Large ones often have multiple terminals, though some large airports like Amsterdam Airport Schiphol still have one terminal. The terminal has a series of gates, which provide passengers with access to the plane.


title: Airport

text: For both sets of passengers, there must be a link between the passenger facilities and the aircraft, such as jet bridges or airstairs. There also needs to be a baggage handling system, to transport baggage from the baggage drop-off to departing planes, and from arriving planes to the baggage reclaim.


title: Airport

text: The area where the aircraft parks to load passengers and baggage is known as an "apron" or "ramp" (or incorrectly, "the tarmac").


title: Airport

text: Airports with international flights have customs and immigration facilities. However, as some countries have agreements that allow travel between them without customs and immigrations, such facilities are not a definitive need for an international airport. International flights often require a higher level of physical security, although in recent years, many countries have adopted the same level of security for international and domestic travel.


title: Airport

text: "Floating airports" are being designed which could be located out at sea and which would use designs such as pneumatic stabilized platform technology.


title: Airport

text: Airport security normally requires baggage checks, metal screenings of individual persons, and rules against any object that could be used as a weapon. Since the September 11 attacks and the Real ID Act of 2005, airport security has dramatically increased and got tighter and stricter than ever before.


title: Airport

text: Most major airports provide commercial outlets for products and services. Most of these companies, many of which are internationally known brands, are located within the departure areas. These include clothing boutiques and restaurants and in the US amounted to $4.2 billion in 2015. Prices charged for items sold at these outlets are generally higher than those outside the airport. However, some airports now regulate costs to keep them comparable to "street prices". This term is misleading as prices often match the manufacturers' suggested retail price (MSRP) but are almost never discounted.


title: Airport

text: Many new airports include walkthrough duty-free stores that require air passengers to enter a retail store upon exiting security. Airport planners sometimes incorporate winding routes within these stores such that passengers encounter more goods as they walk towards their gate. Planners also install artworks next to the airport's shops in order to draw passengers into the stores.


title: Airport

text: Apart from major fast food chains, some airport restaurants offer regional cuisine specialties for those in transit so that they may sample local food without leaving the airport.


title: Airport

text: Some airport structures include on-site hotels built within or attached to a terminal building. Airport hotels have grown popular due to their convenience for transient passengers and easy accessibility to the airport terminal. Many airport hotels also have agreements with airlines to provide overnight lodging for displaced passengers.


title: Airport

text: Major airports in such countries as Russia and Japan offer miniature sleeping units within the airport that are available for rent by the hour. The smallest type is the capsule hotel popular in Japan. A slightly larger variety is known as a sleep box. An even larger type is provided by the company YOTEL.


title: Airport

text: Airports may also contain premium and VIP services. The premium and VIP services may include express check-in and dedicated check-in counters. These services are usually reserved for first and business class passengers, premium frequent flyers, and members of the airline's clubs. Premium services may sometimes be open to passengers who are members of a different airline's frequent flyer program. This can sometimes be part of a reciprocal deal, as when multiple airlines are part of the same alliance, or as a ploy to attract premium customers away from rival airlines.


title: Airport

text: Sometimes these premium services will be offered to a non-premium passenger if the airline has made a mistake in handling of the passenger, such as unreasonable delays or mishandling of checked baggage.


title: Airport

text: Airline lounges frequently offer free or reduced cost food, as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Lounges themselves typically have seating, showers, quiet areas, televisions, computer, Wi-Fi and Internet access, and power outlets that passengers may use for their electronic equipment. Some airline lounges employ baristas, bartenders and gourmet chefs.


title: Airport

text: Airlines sometimes operate multiple lounges within the one airport terminal allowing ultra-premium customers, such as first class customers, additional services, which are not available to other premium customers. Multiple lounges may also prevent overcrowding of the lounge facilities.


title: Airport

text: In addition to people, airports move cargo around the clock. Cargo airlines often have their own on-site and adjacent infrastructure to transfer parcels between ground and air.


title: Airport

text: Cargo Terminal Facilities are areas where international airports export cargo has to be stored after customs clearance and prior to loading the aircraft. Similarly, import cargo that is offloaded needs to be in bond before the consignee decides to take delivery. Areas have to be kept aside for examination of export and import cargo by the airport authorities. Designated areas or sheds may be given to airlines or freight forward ring agencies.


title: Airport

text: Every cargo terminal has a landside and an airside. The landside is where the exporters and importers through either their agents or by themselves deliver or collect shipments while the airside is where loads are moved to or from the aircraft. In addition, cargo terminals are divided into distinct areas – export, import, and interline or transshipment.


title: Airport

text: Airports require parking lots, for passengers who may leave the cars at the airport for a long period of time. Large airports will also have car-rental firms, taxi ranks, bus stops and sometimes a train station.


title: Airport

text: Many large airports are located near railway trunk routes for seamless connection of multimodal transport, for instance Frankfurt Airport, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, London Heathrow Airport, Tokyo Haneda Airport, Tokyo Narita Airport, London Gatwick Airport and London Stansted Airport. It is also common to connect an airport and a city with rapid transit, light rail lines or other non-road public transport systems. Some examples of this would include the AirTrain JFK at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Link light rail that runs from the heart of downtown Seattle to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and the Silver Line T at Boston's Logan International Airport by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). Such a connection lowers risk of missed flights due to traffic congestion. Large airports usually have access also through controlled-access highways ('freeways' or 'motorways') from which motor vehicles enter either the departure loop or the arrival loop.


title: Airport

text: The distances passengers need to move within a large airport can be substantial. It is common for airports to provide moving walkways, buses, and rail transport systems. Some airports like Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and London Stansted Airport have a transit system that connects some of the gates to a main terminal. Airports with more than one terminal have a transit system to connect the terminals together, such as John F. Kennedy International Airport, Mexico City International Airport and London Gatwick Airport.


title: Airport

text: Air traffic control (ATC) is the task of managing aircraft movements and making sure they are safe, orderly and expeditious. At the largest airports, air traffic control is a series of highly complex operations that requires managing frequent traffic that moves in all three dimensions.


title: Airport

text: A "towered" or "controlled" airport has a control tower where the air traffic controllers are based. Pilots are required to maintain two-way radio communication with the controllers, and to acknowledge and comply with their instructions. A "non-towered" airport has no operating control tower and therefore two-way radio communications are not required, though it is good operating practice for pilots to transmit their intentions on the airport's common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) for the benefit of other aircraft in the area. The CTAF may be a Universal Integrated Community (UNICOM), MULTICOM, Flight Service Station (FSS), or tower frequency.


title: Airport

text: The majority of the world's airports are small facilities without a tower. Not all towered airports have 24/7 ATC operations. In those cases, non-towered procedures apply when the tower is not in use, such as at night. Non-towered airports come under area (en-route) control. Remote and virtual tower (RVT) is a system in which ATC is handled by controllers who are not present at the airport itself.


title: Airport

text: Air traffic control responsibilities at airports are usually divided into at least two main areas: "ground" and "tower", though a single controller may work both stations. The busiest airports may subdivide responsibilities further, with "clearance delivery", "apron control", and/or other specialized ATC stations.


title: Airport

text: Ground control is responsible for directing all ground traffic in designated "movement areas", except the traffic on runways. This includes planes, baggage trains, snowplows, grass cutters, fuel trucks, stair trucks, airline food trucks, conveyor belt vehicles and other vehicles. Ground Control will instruct these vehicles on which taxiways to use, which runway they will use (in the case of planes), where they will park, and when it is safe to cross runways. When a plane is ready to takeoff it will be turned over to tower control. Conversely, after a plane has landed it will depart the runway and be "handed over" from Tower to Ground Control.


title: Airport

text: Tower control is responsible for aircraft on the runway and in the controlled airspace immediately surrounding the airport. Tower controllers may use radar to locate an aircraft's position in 3D space, or they may rely on pilot position reports and visual observation. They coordinate the sequencing of aircraft in the traffic pattern and direct aircraft on how to safely join and leave the circuit. Aircraft which are only passing through the airspace must also contact tower control to be sure they remain clear of other traffic.


title: Airport

text: At all airports the use of a traffic pattern (often called a "traffic circuit" outside the US) is possible. They may help to assure smooth traffic flow between departing and arriving aircraft. There is no technical need within modern commercial aviation for performing this pattern, "provided there is no queue". And due to the so-called SLOT-times, the overall traffic planning tend to assure landing queues are avoided. If for instance an aircraft approaches runway 17 (which has a heading of approx. 170 degrees) from the north (coming from 360/0 degrees heading towards 180 degrees), the aircraft will land as fast as possible by just turning 10 degrees and follow the glidepath, without orbit the runway for visual reasons, whenever this is possible. For smaller piston engined airplanes at smaller airfields without ILS equipment, things are very different though.


title: Airport

text: Generally, this pattern is a circuit consisting of five "legs" that form a rectangle (two legs and the runway form one side, with the remaining legs forming three more sides). Each leg is named (see diagram), and ATC directs pilots on how to join and leave the circuit. Traffic patterns are flown at one specific altitude, usually above ground level (AGL). Standard traffic patterns are "left-handed", meaning all turns are made to the left. One of the main reason for this is that pilots sit on the left side of the airplane, and a Left-hand patterns improves their visibility of the airport and pattern. Right-handed patterns do exist, usually because of obstacles such as a mountain, or to reduce noise for local residents. The predetermined circuit helps traffic flow smoothly because all pilots know what to expect, and helps reduce the chance of a mid-air collision.


title: Airport

text: At controlled airports, a circuit can be in place but is not normally used. Rather, aircraft (usually only commercial with long routes) request approach clearance while they are still hours away from the airport; the destination airport can then plan a queue of arrivals, and planes will be guided into one queue per active runway for a "straight-in" approach. While this system keeps the airspace free and is simpler for pilots, it requires detailed knowledge of how aircraft are planning to use the airport ahead of time and is therefore only possible with large commercial airliners on pre-scheduled flights. The system has recently become so advanced that controllers can predict whether an aircraft will be delayed on landing before it even takes off; that aircraft can then be delayed on the ground, rather than wasting expensive fuel waiting in the air.


title: Airport

text: There are a number of aids, both visual and electronic, though not at all airports. A visual approach slope indicator (VASI) helps pilots fly the approach for landing. Some airports are equipped with a VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) to help pilots find the direction to the airport. VORs are often accompanied by a distance measuring equipment (DME) to determine the distance to the VOR. VORs are also located off airports, where they serve to provide airways for aircraft to navigate upon. In poor weather, pilots will use an instrument landing system (ILS) to find the runway and fly the correct approach, even if they cannot see the ground. The number of instrument approaches based on the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) is rapidly increasing and may eventually become the primary means for instrument landings.


title: Airport

text: Larger airports sometimes offer precision approach radar (PAR), but these systems are more common at military air bases than civilian airports. The aircraft's horizontal and vertical movement is tracked via radar, and the controller tells the pilot his position relative to the approach slope. Once the pilots can see the runway lights, they may continue with a visual landing.


title: Airport

text: Airport guidance signs provide direction and information to taxiing aircraft and airport vehicles. Smaller aerodromes may have few or no signs, relying instead on diagrams and charts.


title: Airport

text: Many airports have lighting that help guide planes using the runways and taxiways at night or in rain or fog.


title: Airport

text: On runways, green lights indicate the beginning of the runway for landing, while red lights indicate the end of the runway. Runway edge lighting consists of white lights spaced out on both sides of the runway, indicating the edges. Some airports have more complicated lighting on the runways including lights that run down the centerline of the runway and lights that help indicate the approach (an approach lighting system, or ALS). Low-traffic airports may use pilot-controlled lighting to save electricity and staffing costs.


title: Airport

text: Along taxiways, blue lights indicate the taxiway's edge, and some airports have embedded green lights that indicate the centerline.


title: Airport

text: Weather observations at the airport are crucial to safe takeoffs and landings. In the US and Canada, the vast majority of airports, large and small, will either have some form of automated airport weather station, whether an AWOS, ASOS, or AWSS, a human observer or a combination of the two. These weather observations, predominantly in the METAR format, are available over the radio, through automatic terminal information service (ATIS), via the ATC or the flight service station.


title: Airport

text: Planes take-off and land "into" the wind to achieve maximum performance. Because pilots need instantaneous information during landing, a windsock can also be kept in view of the runway. Aviation windsocks are made with lightweight material, withstand strong winds and some are lit up after dark or in foggy weather. Because visibility of windsocks is limited, often multiple glow-orange windsocks are placed on both sides of the runway.


title: Airport

text: Most airports have groundcrew handling the loading and unloading of passengers, crew, baggage and other services. Some groundcrew are linked to specific airlines operating at the airport.


title: Airport

text: The length of time an aircraft remains on the ground in between consecutive flights is known as "turnaround time". Airlines pay great attention to minimizing turnaround times in an effort to keep aircraft use (flying time) high, with times scheduled as low as 25 minutes for jet aircraft operated by low-cost carriers on narrow-body aircraft.


title: Airport

text: Like industrial equipment or facility management, airports require tailor-made maintenance management due to their complexity. With many tangible assets spread over a large area in different environments, these infrastructures must therefore effectively monitor these assets and store spare parts to maintain them at an optimal level of service.


title: Airport

text: To manage these airport assets, several solutions are competing for the market: CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) predominate, and mainly enable a company's maintenance activity to be monitored, planned, recorded and rationalized.


title: Airport

text: Aviation safety is an important concern in the operation of an airport, and almost every airfield includes equipment and procedures for handling emergency situations. Airport crash tender crews are equipped for dealing with airfield accidents, crew and passenger extractions, and the hazards of highly flammable aviation fuel. The crews are also trained to deal with situations such as bomb threats, hijacking, and terrorist activities.


title: Airport

text: Hazards to aircraft include debris, nesting birds, and reduced friction levels due to environmental conditions such as ice, snow, or rain. Part of runway maintenance is airfield rubber removal which helps maintain friction levels. The fields must be kept clear of debris using cleaning equipment so that loose material does not become a projectile and enter an engine duct (see foreign object damage). In adverse weather conditions, ice and snow clearing equipment can be used to improve traction on the landing strip. For waiting aircraft, equipment is used to spray special deicing fluids on the wings.


title: Airport

text: Many airports are built near open fields or wetlands. These tend to attract bird populations, which can pose a hazard to aircraft in the form of bird strikes. Airport crews often need to discourage birds from taking up residence.


title: Airport

text: Some airports are located next to parks, golf courses, or other low-density uses of land. Other airports are located near densely populated urban or suburban areas.


title: Airport

text: An airport can have areas where collisions between aircraft on the ground tend to occur. Records are kept of any incursions where aircraft or vehicles are in an inappropriate location, allowing these "hot spots" to be identified. These locations then undergo special attention by transportation authorities (such as the FAA in the US) and airport administrators.


title: Airport

text: During the 1980s, a phenomenon known as microburst became a growing concern due to aircraft accidents caused by microburst wind shear, such as Delta Air Lines Flight 191. Microburst radar was developed as an aid to safety during landing, giving two to five minutes' warning to aircraft in the vicinity of the field of a microburst event.


title: Airport

text: Some airfields now have a special surface known as soft concrete at the end of the runway (stopway or blastpad) that behaves somewhat like styrofoam, bringing the plane to a relatively rapid halt as the material disintegrates. These surfaces are useful when the runway is located next to a body of water or other hazard, and prevent the planes from overrunning the end of the field.


title: Airport

text: Airports often have on-site firefighters to respond to emergencies. These use specialized vehicles, known as airport crash tenders. Most civil aviation authorities have required levels of on-site emergency response capabilities based on an airport's traffic. At airports where civil and military operations share a common set of runways and infrastructure, emergency response is often managed by the relevant military unit as part of their base's operations.


title: Airport

text: Aircraft noise is a major cause of noise disturbance to residents living near airports. Sleep can be affected if the airports operate night and early morning flights. Aircraft noise occurs not only from take-offs and landings but also from ground operations including maintenance and testing of aircraft. Noise can have other health effects as well. Other noises and environmental concerns are vehicle traffic causing noise and pollution on roads leading to the airport.


title: Airport

text: The construction of new airports or addition of runways to existing airports, is often resisted by local residents because of the effect on countryside, historical sites, and local flora and fauna. Due to the risk of collision between birds and aircraft, large airports undertake population control programs where they frighten or shoot birds.


title: Airport

text: The construction of airports has been known to change local weather patterns. For example, because they often flatten out large areas, they can be susceptible to fog in areas where fog rarely forms. In addition, they generally replace trees and grass with pavement, they often change drainage patterns in agricultural areas, leading to more flooding, run-off and erosion in the surrounding land. Airports are often built on low-lying coastal land, globally 269 airports are at risk of coastal flooding now. A temperature rise of 2C – consistent with the Paris Agreement - would lead to 100 airports being below mean sea level and 364 airports at risk of flooding. If global mean temperature rise exceeds this then as many as 572 airports will be at risk by 2100, leading to major disruptions without appropriate adaptation.


title: Airport

text: Some of the airport administrations prepare and publish annual environmental reports to show how they consider these environmental concerns in airport management issues and how they protect environment from airport operations. These reports contain all environmental protection measures performed by airport administration in terms of water, air, soil and noise pollution, resource conservation and protection of natural life around the airport.


title: Airport

text: A 2019 report from the Cooperative Research Programs of the US Transportation Research Board showed all airports have a role to play in advancing greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction initiatives. Small airports have demonstrated leadership by using their less complex organizational structure to implement newer technologies and to serve as a proving ground for their feasibility. Large airports have the economic stability and staff resources necessary to grow in-house expertise and fund comprehensive new programs.


title: Airport

text: A growing number of airports are installing solar photovoltaic arrays to offset their electricity use. The National Renewable Energy Lab has shown this can be done safely. This can also be done on the roofs of the airports and it has been found that the solar panels on these buildings work more effectively when compared to residential panels.


title: Airport

text: The world's first airport to be fully powered by solar energy is located at Kochi, India. Another airport known for considering environmental concerns is Seymour Airport in the Galapagos Islands.


title: Airport

text: An airbase, sometimes referred to as an "air station" or "airfield", provides basing and support of military aircraft. Some airbases, known as "military airports", provide facilities similar to their civilian counterparts. For example, RAF Brize Norton in the UK has a terminal that caters to passengers for the Royal Air Force's scheduled flights to the Falkland Islands. Some airbases are co-located with civilian airports, sharing the same ATC facilities, runways, taxiways and emergency services, but with separate terminals, parking areas and hangars. Bardufoss Airport, Bardufoss Air Station in Norway and Pune Airport in India are examples of this.


title: Airport

text: An aircraft carrier is a warship that functions as a mobile airbase. Aircraft carriers allow a naval force to project air power without having to depend on local bases for land-based aircraft. After their development in World War I, aircraft carriers replaced the battleship as the centrepiece of a modern fleet during World War II.


title: Airport

text: Most airports in the United States are designated "private-use airports" meaning that, whether publicly- or privately owned, the airport is not open or available for use by the public (although use of the airport may be made available by invitation of the owner or manager).


title: Airport

text: Most airport names include the location. Many airport names honour a public figure, commonly a politician (e.g., Charles de Gaulle Airport, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Lennart Meri Airport, O.R. Tambo International Airport, Soekarno–Hatta International Airport), a monarch (e.g. Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, King Shaka International Airport), a cultural leader (e.g. Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) or a prominent figure in aviation history of the region (e.g. Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport), sometimes even famous writers (e.g. Allama Iqbal International Airport) and explorers (e.g. Venice Marco Polo Airport).


title: Airport

text: Some airports have unofficial names, possibly so widely circulated that its official name is little used or even known.


title: Airport

text: Some airport names include the word "International" to indicate their ability to handle international air traffic. This includes some airports that do not have scheduled international airline services (e.g. Port Elizabeth International Airport).


title: Airport

text: The earliest aircraft takeoff and landing sites were grassy fields. The plane could approach at any angle that provided a favorable wind direction. A slight improvement was the dirt-only field, which eliminated the drag from grass. However, these functioned well only in dry conditions. Later, concrete surfaces would allow landings regardless of meteorological conditions.


title: Airport

text: The title of "world's oldest airport" is disputed. Toussus-le-Noble airport near Paris, France was established in 1907 and has been operating since. College Park Airport in Maryland, US, established in 1909 by Wilbur Wright serves only general aviation traffic.


title: Airport

text: Beijing Nanyuan Airport in China, which was built to accommodate planes in 1904, and airships in 1907, opened in 1910. It was in operation until September 2019. Pearson Field Airport in Vancouver, Washington, United States, was built to accommodate planes in 1905 and airships in 1911, and is still in use as of January 2022.


title: Airport

text: Hamburg Airport opened in January 1911, making it the oldest commercial airport in the world which is still in operation. Bremen Airport opened in 1913 and remains in use, although it served as an American military field between 1945 and 1949. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol opened on September 16, 1916, as a military airfield, but has accepted civil aircraft only since December 17, 1920, allowing Sydney Airport—which started operations in January 1920—to claim to be one of the world's oldest continuously operating commercial airports. Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in the US opened in 1920 and has been in continuous commercial service since. It serves about 35,000,000 passengers each year and continues to expand, recently opening a new 11,000-foot (3,355 m) runway. Of the airports constructed during this early period in aviation, it is one of the largest and busiest that is still currently operating. Don Mueang International Airport near Bangkok, Thailand, opened 1914, is also a contender, as well as the Rome Ciampino Airport, which opened in 1916.


title: Airport

text: Increased aircraft traffic during World War I led to the construction of landing fields. Aircraft had to approach these from certain directions and this led to the development of aids for directing the approach and landing slope.


title: Airport

text: Following the war, some of these military airfields added civil facilities for handling passenger traffic. One of the earliest such fields was Paris – Le Bourget Airport at Le Bourget, near Paris. The first airport to operate scheduled international commercial services was Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in August 1919, but it was closed and supplanted by Croydon Airport in March 1920. In 1922, the first permanent airport and commercial terminal solely for commercial aviation was opened at Flughafen Devau near what was then Königsberg, East Prussia. The airports of this era used a paved "apron", which permitted night flying as well as landing heavier aircraft.


title: Airport

text: The first lighting used on an airport was during the latter part of the 1920s; in the 1930s approach lighting came into use. These indicated the proper direction and angle of descent. The colours and flash intervals of these lights became standardized under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). In the 1940s, the slope-line approach system was introduced. This consisted of two rows of lights that formed a funnel indicating an aircraft's position on the glideslope. Additional lights indicated incorrect altitude and direction.


title: Airport

text: After World War II, airport design became more sophisticated. Passenger buildings were being grouped together in an island, with runways arranged in groups about the terminal. This arrangement permitted expansion of the facilities. But it also meant that passengers had to travel further to reach their plane.


title: Airport

text: An improvement in the landing field was the introduction of grooves in the concrete surface. These run perpendicular to the direction of the landing aircraft and serve to draw off excess rainwater that could build up in front of the plane's wheels.


title: Airport

text: Airport construction boomed during the 1960s with the increase in jet aircraft traffic. Runways were extended out to . The fields were constructed out of reinforced concrete using a slip-form machine that produces a continuous slab with no disruptions along the length. The early 1960s also saw the introduction of jet bridge systems to modern airport terminals, an innovation which eliminated outdoor passenger boarding. These systems became commonplace in the United States by the 1970s.


title: Airport

text: The malicious use of UAVs has led to the deployment of counter unmanned air system (C-UAS) technologies such as the Aaronia AARTOS which have been installed on major international airports.


title: Airport

text: Airports have played major roles in films and television programs due to their very nature as a transport and international hub, and sometimes because of distinctive architectural features of particular airports. One such example of this is "The Terminal", a film about a man who becomes permanently grounded in an airport terminal and must survive only on the food and shelter provided by the airport. They are also one of the major elements in movies such as "The V.I.P.s", "Speed", "Airplane!", "Airport" (1970), "Die Hard 2", "Soul Plane", "Jackie Brown", "Get Shorty", "Home Alone" (1990), "" (1992), "Liar Liar", "Passenger 57", "Final Destination" (2000), "Unaccompanied Minors", "Catch Me If You Can", "Rendition" and "The Langoliers". They have also played important parts in television series like "Lost", "The Amazing Race", "America's Next Top Model (season 10)", "90 Day Fiancé", "Air Crash Investigation" which have significant parts of their story set within airports. In other programmes and films, airports are merely indicative of journeys, e.g. "Good Will Hunting".


title: Airport

text: Several computer simulation games put the player in charge of an airport. These include the Airport Tycoon series, SimAirport and Airport CEO.


title: Airport

text: Each civil aviation authority provides a source of information about airports in their country. This will contain information on airport elevation, airport lighting, runway information, communications facilities and frequencies, hours of operation, nearby NAVAIDs and contact information where prior arrangement for landing is necessary.


title: Airport

text: "A comprehensive, consumer/business directory of commercial airports in the world (primarily for airports as businesses, rather than for pilots) is organized by the trade group Airports Council International."


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Legion (David Charles Haller) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the mutant son of Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller. Legion takes the role of an antihero who has a severe mental illness, including a form of dissociative identity disorder in which each of his identities exhibits different mutant abilities or powers.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: The character was portrayed by Dan Stevens in the critically acclaimed FX television series "Legion" (2017–19), which was developed, written, directed, and produced by Noah Hawley.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz, Legion made his debut in "New Mutants" #25 (March 1985).


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: In 1991, Legion was assigned to be a co-starring character in the newly revamped "X-Factor", as a member of the eponymous superteam. However, writer Peter David was uncomfortable with this, and ultimately editor Bob Harras independently came to the conclusion that Legion should not be used in the series. David explained "I don't mind building a story around [Legion], but working him into a group - you're really asking for a bit much from the reader. Believing that a group of people will come together to form a team is enough of a suspension of disbelief... 'Oh, by the way, one of them is so nuts he shouldn't be setting foot off Muir Island'... that's asking the reader to bend so far he will break."


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: While working in an Israeli psychiatric facility, Charles Xavier met a patient named Gabrielle Haller. The two had an affair which ended amicably. Gabrielle became pregnant with David, but did not tell Charles.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: David, at a young age, was living with his mother and stepfather in Paris when his home was attacked by terrorists and his stepfather was killed. The trauma of the situation caused an initial manifestation of David's mutant powers, as David incinerated the minds of the terrorists. In the process, he unintentionally absorbed the mind of the terrorist leader, Jemail Karami, into his own. Being linked to so many others at their time of death, David was rendered catatonic for years. As he slowly recovered, he was moved to the care of Moira MacTaggert at the Muir Island mutant research facility. The trauma (possibly in conjunction with the nature of his reality-altering powers) had caused that David's mind dissociate chronically until it became into a Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and each alter manifesting different mutant abilities.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: The Karami alter, which manifested telepathic abilities, struggled for years to separate his consciousness from David's. In the process, Karami tried to unifique many alters has he could trying to end David's catatonic state. Some of the alters resisted Karami, most notably Jack Wayne, a swaggering adventurer who was telekinetic, and Cyndi, a temperamental, rebellious girl who was pyrokinetic. Ultimately Karami, Wayne, and Cyndi continued to exist as David's most prominent alters.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: During his time at Muir Island, David saved Moira and Wolfsbane from a fatal accident by accessing the telekinetic abilities of his Jack Wayne alter. However, this allowed Jack Wayne to take control of David's body, and he left the island. The New Mutants tracked him down and, after a struggle, convinced Wayne to allow David to again assume control. Soon after, David was possessed by the Shadow King. While under the Shadow King's influence, David killed the mutant Destiny and destroyed 2/3 of the island. When the X-Men and X-Factor defeated the Shadow King, David was again left in a coma.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Years later, David awoke from his coma believing his psyche fully healed. When he had killed the mutant precog Destiny, David had absorbed her psyche. Destiny gave David vague prophetic guidance about the great world that could exist "if only, years ago, Professor X had been given a real chance to fulfill his dream." David, who despite his belief that he was not sane, understood these words as a directive to travel back in time and kill Magneto, Xavier's greatest adversary, to allow his father Professor X to achieve the dream of human-mutant coexistence.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: As several X-Men attempted to stop him, Legion traveled twenty years into the past, accidentally dragging the X-Men with him. David appeared in the past in front of Xavier and Magneto, who at the time were orderlies in a mental hospital. As Legion attacked Magneto, the X-Men intervened. After overpowering the X-Men, Legion readied his fatal blow for Magneto, but Xavier leaped in front of the lethal psychic attack and was himself killed. By accidentally killing his father, the horrified David prevented his own birth and ceased to exist. The death of Xavier created a catastrophic alternate timeline, the Age of Apocalypse.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Ultimately, Bishop managed to fix the timeline by enlisting the aid of the new reality's X-Men to travel back in time to the moment of Xavier's murder. There Bishop confronted Legion, using David's own power to create a psionic loop that showed the young mutant the damage that his actions would cause. David allowed the energy released in this process to incinerate him, in his last moments apologizing for what he had done."


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: While David was considered deceased, some of his alters manifested as spirits and started terrorizing Israel (where David had been born). Excalibur was called to stop them. Ultimately Meggan used her empathy to calm their rage, convincing them to go "towards the light."


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: David had in fact not died; rather, his mind manifested in Otherplace, a timeless interdimensional limbo. When Bishop had turned Legion's psychic power back on him, it devastated David's mental landscape, undoing all the healing efforts of Karami and Professor Xavier. David now had thousands of alters vying for control in his mind. David wandered through Otherplace for an untold period of time, trying to make his way back home. Magik, a mutant able to travel across dimensions, reached out and contacted one of David's alters, "The Legion," who could alter reality at a cosmic scale (this incredibly powerful personality claimed to be the "real" David, although it was distinct from David's host alter). Magik offered to guide Legion back to this dimension, provided that The Legion would aid her by destroying her nemeses, the Elder Gods, when she asked.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: David re-manifested in the physical world, although his David's host alter had been imprisoned in his mindscape by his other alters, allowing the more malicious alters to take turns controlling his body. One of these alters killed and absorbed the mind of a young girl, Marci Sobol, who became another alter within Legion. David was discovered by the New Mutants as they investigated a possible mutant case in Westcliffe, Colorado. David absorbed Karma and Magik into his mind. As the rest of the team fought a losing battle against various alters that seized control of Legion's body, in his mindscape Karma and Magik destroyed other hostile alters. Eventually they found the Marci alter, who led them to David's imprisoned core self. By freeing David and helping him reassert control, Karma and Magik saved the rest of the team and were restored to their bodies. David was detained by the X-Men and put in the care of Professor X, Doctor Nemesis, Danger, and Rogue.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Weeks later, Magik managed to bring the Elder Gods back to Earth, planning to have her revenge on them. The Elder Gods manifested, causing catastrophic destruction, and appeared ready to lay waste to the world. As the various mutant teams tried to stop this apocalypse, Magik sent her ally Karma to free Legion and awaken "The Legion" alter to fulfill its bargain. The Legion, who Magik called "The God Mutant," appeared and altered reality to wipe the Elder Gods from existence and reset the world to a time before they had manifested. After this, David's host alter returned and he was taken back into the care and treatment of the X-Men.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Believing that David's psyche would be healed if his alters were quarantined, Doctor Nemesis began to catalog and contain these alters within David's mind. Unbeknownst to Doctor Nemesis and Professor Xavier, however, David's mind subconsciously perceived this intervention as a threat and created a "psychic antibody," a powerful new alter, to defend itself. The new alter had access to a degree of David's underlying ability to alter reality and time. Assuming the appearance of the deceased Moira McTaggert (considered a mother figure by David due to his time under her care at Muir Island), the alter attempted to 'protect' Legion from the 'assault' on his mind by creating a pocket reality where Legion was the hero that he always wanted to be. Many members of various X-teams were also brought into this new reality, which existed separately from Marvel's primary continuity.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: The alternate pocket reality, the Age of X, was a dystopia in which mutants had been hunted almost to extinction; the remaining mutants were kept alive by Legion's mutant team, who daily generated a force wall to repel attacking human forces. Legion himself remained unaware that one of his alters had created this world, and most of the mutants who had been brought into the reality by 'Moira' believed that they had always been there. Within this pocket reality the 'Moira' personality was practically omnipotent, creating and controlling random soldiers for Legion and the other mutants to kill. Eventually, Legacy, the alternate Rogue, discovered that 'Moira' had in fact created this reality. Confronted with this truth, Legion spoke to 'Moira,' who tearfully offered to create as many universes for him as he wanted. Instead, David absorbed 'Moira' back into himself and erased the Age of X reality, restoring its participants to Earth-616 reality; ultimately, this entire timeline had lasted seven days in their normal continuity.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: With the Age of X incident underscoring the potentially apocalyptic scope of David's power, Professor X proposed a new approach to help Legion retain control of himself. Instead of isolating David from the other alters in his mind, Professor X suggested that he learn to co-exist with them. To this end, Doctor Nemesis, Madison Jeffries and Reed Richards designed a Neural Switchboard Wristband for David. This switchboard assigned unique numbers to different Legion alters. When David entered a number, the device stimulated cells in his thalamus and neocortex, creating a one-way link between David's host alter and the other alters he had selected. This allowed Legion to access the power of that alter for several seconds without being overwhelmed by it. While testing the device, Legion discovered that six of his alter were no longer in his mind, but had "escaped," manifesting separately from him in the real world. With a team of X-Men, Legion tracked down and reabsorbed all of these rogue personas. While absorbing the last one, he accidentally absorbed Rogue along with it, and, after releasing her, David suffered a massive shock to his nervous system. Rogue stated that, while she was inside Legion, she was connected to thousands of types of powers and there were more being born all the time.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: To aid his recovery, Professor X left Legion with Merzah the Mystic, a powerful empath and telepath who ran a Himalayan monastery. While at the monastery, David gained much greater control of himself, and he stopped using the Neural Switchboard Wristband. Under Merzah's tutelage, David learned to visualize a facility in his mind where his alters could be kept and controlled. However, while David was at the monastery, elsewhere in the world Professor X was killed. When Legion sensed this, the mental shock caused a catastrophic release of energy that killed Merzah and everyone else at the monastery. In addition, without knowing it, David subconsciously created a new alter, The Fiend. This alter was able to kill other alters in his mind, absorbing their powers in the process.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: In the final issue of "X-Men: Legacy", Legion, reaching the full extent of his powers, decided to erase himself from existence.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: For unknown reasons (perhaps elements of his own psyche working against him), Legion's attempt to erase himself from existence failed. When he reappeared, David's mind was again fragmented into many alter, including a malicious new alter, "Lord Trauma." Lord Trauma aimed to take over David's mind and body by absorbing all of David's other alter. In a desperate attempt to save himself, David sought out the help of renowned young psychotherapist Hannah Jones to delve into his fractured mind and fight back this dark alter While Jones was ultimately able to help Legion defeat Trauma, she remained trapped in David's psyche (her body in a vegetative coma). To thank Jones, Legion placed her psyche into a dream state/alternate reality where she achieved her biggest goals.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: As the X-Men race around the globe to fight the temporal anomalies that have been springing up and to corral the hundreds of Madrox duplicates wreaking havoc, Legion arrives at the X-Mansion, seemingly in control of his powers and psyche. While the young X-Men try to ascertain what he wants, elsewhere Jean Grey and Psylocke team up to psychically purge whatever force is controlling the army of Madrox duplicates. Finding the prime Madrox imprisoned below the area where the army of duplicates are congregating, he explains that Legion imprisoned him and implanted his numerous alter and powers across the hundreds of duplicates. However, with his control broken, Legion goes berserk in the mansion, attacking the young X-Men and ranting about a vision of the future. The rest of the X-Men arrive to help but Legion singlehandedly takes on the whole team until he and Jean Grey go head-to-head. Legion then explains that he's trying to prevent a vision of the future - the arrival of the Horsemen of Salvation - but just as Legion mentions them, the Horsemen arrive.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Following the creation of Krakoa as a mutant nation, Legion was captured by Project Orchis and had his brain harvested into a mysterious device which kept his mind trapped in a hellscape, simulating Legion's various personas to predict every probability scenarios in which to bring down the nation of Krakoa. Hoping to spread further strife, Orchis introduced an invasive entity to speed along the process, giving them a psychic weapon they can use to break the social structures of Krakoa and in the process, destroy the new mutant homeland. Nightcrawler is the first to notice this dark trend at the heart of his fellow mutants, especially in light of effective immortality, which radically altered and is influencing and pushing them to their darker and crueler impulses on a day-to-day basis. He also learns in the process about the Patchwork Man, a mysterious figure appearing to mutants in their dreams and haunting them. After recruiting Nightcrawler to rescue his mind from the device that trapped him, Legion confirms to Nightcrawler that the Patchwork Man and the signature he encountered in his mind are one and the same and that belongs to Onslaught, the evil psionic entity born from Xavier's darkest self, somehow restored by Project Orchis.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Legion is an Omega-level mutant who has dissociative identity disorder. Fundamentally, he has the ability to alter reality and time on a cosmic scale at will, but due to his multiple personalities, in practice his abilities vary depending on the dominant personality: each alter has different powers enabled by David's subconscious manipulation of reality. The core personality, David Haller himself, generally does not manifest mutant abilities, but must access various personalities to use their power, sometimes losing control of himself to that personality. Some of Legion's personalities physically transform his body (e.g., manifesting a prehensile tongue, becoming a woman, transforming into a werewolf, etc.). The first alter to manifest, Jemail Karami, was telepathic. Other prominent alters include Jack Wayne (telekinetic) and Cyndi (pyrokinetic). Legion has over a thousand different personalities (the exact number is unknown), and his mind can create additional alters in response to external or internal events.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: The cumulative abilities of all his personalities make him one of the most powerful mutants in existence, if not the most powerful. Since the abilities of his personalities stem from his subconscious alteration of reality, Legion is theoretically capable of manifesting any power he can imagine. In two instances David has manifested the full extent of his ability to alter time and reality: in the first, he wiped the Elder Gods from existence and reset the universe to a state before the Elder Gods first appeared on Earth, and in the other he observed the entirety of spacetime and mended damage his personalities had done to it.


title: Legion (Marvel Comics)

text: Legion can absorb other people's psyches into his mind, either intentionally or, if he is next to them when they die, unintentionally. Conversely, in several instances Legion has had personalities manifest and act separately from him (or even against him) in the physical world; in most instances Legion has ultimately reabsorbed these personalities back into himself. Presumably, both his absorption of other psyches and the physical manifestations of his own personalities are enabled by Legion's underlying ability to alter reality/time at will.