title: Synchronization gear

text: The story of his conception, development and installation of the Fokker synchronization device in a period of 48 hours (first found in an authorised biography of Fokker written in 1929) is not now believed to be factual. Another possible explanation is that Garros's Morane, partly destroyed by fire as it was, had sufficient traces of the original synchronization gear remaining for Fokker to have guessed how it worked. For various reasons this also seems unlikely, and the current historical consensus points to a synchronization device having been in development by Fokker's team (including engineer Heinrich Lübbe) prior to the capture of Garros's machine.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Whatever its ultimate source, the initial version of the Fokker synchronization gear (see illustration) very closely followed, not Schneider's patent, as claimed by Schneider and others, but "Saulnier's". Like the Saulnier patent, Fokker's gear was designed to actively fire the gun rather than interrupt it, and, like the later Vickers-Challenger gear developed for the RFC, it followed Saulnier in taking its primary mechanical drive from the oil pump of a rotary engine. The "transmission" between the motor and the gun was by a version of Saulnier's reciprocating push-rod. The main difference was that instead of the push rod passing directly from the engine to the gun itself, which would have required a tunnel through the firewall and fuel tank (as shown in the Saulnier patent drawings), it was driven by a shaft joining the oil pump to a small cam at the top of the fuselage. This eventually proved unsatisfactory, as the oil pump's mechanical drive spindle was insufficiently robust to take the extra load.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Before the failings of the first form of the gear had become clear, Fokker's team had adapted the new system to the new Parabellum MG14 machine gun, and fitted it to a Fokker M.5K, a type which was at the time serving in small numbers with the "Fliegertruppen "as the A.III. This aircraft, bearing IdFlieg serial number "A.16/15" became the direct forerunner to the five M.5K/MG pre-production prototypes built, and was effectively the prototype of the Fokker E.I – the first production single-seat fighter aircraft armed with a synchronized machine gun.


title: Synchronization gear

text: This prototype was demonstrated to IdFlieg by Fokker in person on 19–20 May 1915 at the Döberitz proving ground near Berlin. "Leutnant" Otto Parschau was test flying this aircraft by 30 May 1915. The five production prototypes (factory designated M.5K/MG and serialed E.1/15 – E.5/15) were undergoing military trials shortly thereafter. These were all armed with the Parabellum gun, synchronized with the first version of the Fokker gear. This prototype gear had such a short life that a redesign was necessary, producing the second, more familiar, production form of the gear.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The gear used in the production Eindecker fighters replaced the oil pump's mechanical driveshaft-based system with a large cam wheel, almost a light flywheel, driven directly from the spinning rotary engine's crankcase. The push rod now took its reciprocating motion directly from a "follower" on this cam wheel. At the same time the machine gun used was also changed—an lMG 08 machine gun, the so-called "Spandau", replacing the Parabellum used with the prototype gear. At this time the Parabellum was still in very short supply, and all available examples were required as observers' guns, the lighter and handier weapon being far superior in this role.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The first victory using a synchronized gun-equipped fighter is now believed to have occurred on 1 July 1915 when "Leutnant" Kurt Wintgens of "Feldflieger Abteilung 6b", flying the Parabellum-armed Fokker M.5K/MG aircraft "E.5/15", forced down a French Morane-Saulnier Type L east of Lunéville.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Exclusive possession of a working gun synchronizer enabled a period of German air superiority on the Western Front known as the Fokker Scourge. The German high command was protective of the synchronizer system, instructing pilots not to venture over enemy territory in case they were forced down and the secret revealed, but the basic principles involved were already common knowledge, and by the middle of 1916 several Allied synchronizers were already available in quantity.


title: Synchronization gear

text: By this time, the Fokker "Stangensteuerung" gear, which had worked reasonably well for synchronizing a single gun, firing at a modest cyclic rate through a two-bladed propeller driven by a rotary engine, was becoming obsolete.


title: Synchronization gear

text: "Stangensteuerung" gears for "stationary", "i.e.", in-line engines, worked from a small cam immediately behind the propeller (see illustration). This produced a basic dilemma: A short, fairly robust push rod meant that the machine gun had to be mounted well forward, putting the breech of the gun out of the pilot's reach for clearing jams. If the gun was mounted in the ideal position, within easy reach of the pilot, a much longer push rod was required, which tended to bend and break.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The other problem was that the "Stangensteuerung" never worked well with more than one gun. Two (or even three) guns, mounted side by side "and firing simultaneously", would have produced a wide spread of fire that would have been impossible to match with the "safe zone" between the whirling propeller blades. Fokker's initial answer to this was the fitting of extra "followers" to the "Stangensteuerung's" large cam wheel, to (theoretically) produce the "ripple" salvo necessary to ensure that the guns were aimed at the same point on the propeller disc. This proved a disastrously unstable arrangement in the case of three guns, and was rather less than satisfactory, even for two. Most of the early Fokker and Halberstadt biplane fighters were limited to a single gun for this reason.


title: Synchronization gear

text: In fact, the builders of the new Albatros twin-gunned stationary-engine fighters of late 1916 had to introduce their own synchronization gear, known as the "Hedtke gear" or "Hedtkesteuerung", and it was evident that Fokker were going to have to come up with something radically new.


title: Synchronization gear

text: This was designed in late 1916 and took the form of a new synchronization gear without any rods at all. The cam that generated the firing impulses was moved from the engine to the gun; the trigger motor in effect now generated its own firing impulses. The linkage between the propeller and the gun now consisted of a flexible drive shaft directly connecting the end of the engine camshaft to the trigger motor of the gun. The firing button for the gun simply engaged a clutch at the engine which set the flexible drive (and thus the trigger motor) in motion. In some ways this brought the new gear closer to the original Schneider patent (q.v.).


title: Synchronization gear

text: A major advantage was that the adjustment (to set where on the propeller's disc each bullet was to impact) was now in the gun itself. This meant that each gun was adjusted separately, an important feature, since twin synchronized guns were not set to be fired in strict unison, but when they were pointing at the same point on the propeller disc. Each gun could be fired independently, since it had its own flexible drive, linked to the engine camshaft by a junction box, and having its own clutch. This provision of a quite separate set of components for each gun also meant that a failure in the gear for one gun did not impinge on the other.


title: Synchronization gear

text: This gear was available in numbers by mid 1917, in time for installation on the Fokker Dr.I triplane and all later German fighters. In fact it became the standard synchronizer for the Luftstreitkräfte for the remainder of the war, although experiments to find an even more reliable gear continued.


title: Synchronization gear

text: In June 1915 a two-seater monoplane designed by Schneider for the LVG Company was sent to the front for evaluation. Its observer was armed with the new Schneider gun ring that was becoming standard on all German two-seaters: the pilot was apparently armed with a fixed synchronized machine gun. The aircraft crashed on its way to the front and nothing more was heard of it, or its synchronization gear, although it was presumably based on Schneider's own patent.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The new Albatros fighters of late 1916 were fitted with twin guns synchronized with the "Albatros-Hedtke Steuerung" gear, which was designed by Albatros "Werkmeister" Hedtke. The system was specifically intended to overcome the problems that had arisen in applying the Fokker "Stangensteuerung" gear to in-line engines and twin gun installations, and was a variation of the rigid push-rod system, driven from the rear of the crankshaft of the Mercedes D.III engine.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The Albatros D.V used a new gear, designed by "Werkmeister" Semmler: (the "Albatros-Semmler Steuerung"). It was basically an improved version of the Hedtke gear.


title: Synchronization gear

text: An official order, signed on 24 July 1917 standardised the superior Fokker "Zentralsteuerung" system for all German aircraft, presumably including Albatroses.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Post First World War German fighters were fitted with electrical synchronizers. In such a gear, a contact or set of contacts, either on the propeller shaft itself, or some other part of the drive train revolving at the same number of revolutions per minute, generates a series of electrical pulses, which are transmitted to a solenoid driven trigger motor at the gun. Experiments with these were underway before the end of the war, and again the LVG company seems to have been involved: a British intelligence report from 25 June 1918 mentions an LVG two-seater fitted with such a gear that was brought down in the British lines. It is known that LVG built 40 C.IV two-seaters fitted with a Siemens electrical synchronizing system.


title: Synchronization gear

text: In addition, the Aviatik company received instructions to install 50 of their own electrical synchronization system on to DFW C.Vs (Av).


title: Synchronization gear

text: The standard machine gun of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces in 1914 was the Schwarzlose gun, which operated on a "delayed blow back" system and was not ideally suited to synchronization. Unlike the French and Italians, who were eventually able to acquire supplies of Vickers guns, the Austrians were unable to obtain sufficient quantities of "Spandaus" from their German allies and were forced to use the Schwarzlose in an application for which it was not really suited. Although the problem of synchronizing the Schwarzlose was eventually partially solved, it was not until late 1916 that gears were available. Even then, at high engine revolutions Austrian synchronizer gears tended to behave very erratically. Austrian fighters were fitted with large tachometers to ensure that a pilot could check that his "revs" were within the required range before firing his guns, and propeller blades were fitted with an electrical warning system that alerted a pilot if his propeller was being hit. There were never enough gears available, due to a chronic shortage of precision tools; so that production fighters, even the excellent Austrian versions of the Albatros D.III, often had to be sent to the front in an unarmed state, for squadron armourers to fit such guns and gears as could be scrounged, salvaged or improvised.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Rather than standardising on a single system, different Austrian manufacturers produced their own gears. The research of Harry Woodman (1989) identified the following types:


title: Synchronization gear

text: Drive was from the camshaft operating rods of the Austro-Daimler engine via a wormgear. The early Schwarzlose gun had a synchronized rate of 360 rounds per minute with this gear – this was later boosted to 380 rounds with the MG16 model.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Drive was taken from the rocking arm of an exhaust valve, a lever fixed to the valve housing transmitting impulses to the gun through a rod. Designed by "Leutnant" Otto Bernatzik, it was geared down to deliver a firing impulse every second revolution of the propeller, and fired at about 380 to 400 rounds per gun. As with other gears synchronizing the Schwarzlose gun, firing became erratic at high engine speeds.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Apart from a control that engaged the cam follower and fired the gun in one movement, this gear was based closely on the original Fokker "Stangensteuerung" gear. It was designed by "Oberleutnant" Guido Priesel, and became standard on Oeffag Albatros fighters in 1918.


title: Synchronization gear

text: This gear was designed by "Oberleutnant" Eduard Zaparka. Drive was from the rear of the camshaft of a Hiero engine through a transmission shaft with Cardan joints. The rate of fire, with the later Schwarzlose gun, was up to 500 rounds per minute. The machine gun had to be placed well forward, where it was inaccessible to the pilot, so that jams could not be cleared in flight.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Based on the principle of the Fokker "Zentralsteuerung" gear, with flexible drives linked to the camshaft, and firing impulses being generated by the trigger motor of each gun. Geared down to operate more reliably with the difficult Schwarzlose gun, its rate of fire was limited to 360–380 rounds per minute.


title: Synchronization gear

text: British gun synchronization got off to a quick but rather shaky start. The early mechanical synchronization gears turned out to be inefficient and unreliable, and full standardisation on the very satisfactory hydraulic "C.C." gear was not accomplished until November 1917. As a result, synchronized guns seem to have been rather unpopular with British fighter pilots well into 1917; and the overwing Lewis gun, on its Foster mounting, remained the weapon of choice for Nieuports in British service, being also initially considered as the main weapon of the S.E.5. Significantly, early problems with the C.C. gear were considered one of the "less" pressing matters for No. 56 squadron in March 1917, busy getting their new S.E.5 fighters combat worthy before they went to France, since they had the overwing Lewis to fall back on! Ball actually had his Vickers gun removed altogether for a while, to save weight.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The first British synchronizer gear was built by the manufacturer of the machine-gun for which it was designed: it went into production in December 1915. George Challenger, the designer, was at the time an engineer at Vickers. In principle it closely resembled the first form of the Fokker gear, although this was not because it was a copy (as is sometimes reported): it was not until April 1916 that a captured Fokker was available for technical analysis. The fact is that both gears were based closely on the Saulnier patent. The first version was driven by a reduction gear attached to a rotary engine oil pump spindle as in Saulnier's design and a small impulse-generating cam was mounted externally on the port side of the forward fuselage where it was readily accessible for adjustment.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Unfortunately, when the gear was fitted to types such as the Bristol Scout and the Sopwith 1½ Strutter, which had rotary engines and their forward-firing machine gun in front of the cockpit, the long push rod linking the gear to the gun had to be mounted at an awkward angle, in which it was liable to twisting and deformation as well as expansion and contraction due to temperature changes.


title: Synchronization gear

text: For this reason the B.E.12, the R.E.8 and Vickers' own FB 19 mounted their forward-firing machine guns on the port side of the fuselage so that a relatively short version of the push rod could be linked directly to the gun.


title: Synchronization gear

text: This worked reasonably well although the "awkward" position of the gun, which precluded direct sighting, was initially much criticised. It proved less of a problem than was at first supposed once it was realized that it was the aircraft that was aimed rather than the gun itself. The last aircraft type to be fitted with the Vickers-Challenger gear, the R.E.8, retained the port-side position of the gun even after most were retrofitted with the C.C. gear from mid 1917.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Lieutenant Victor Dibovski, an officer of the Imperial Russian Navy, while serving as a member of a mission to England to observe and report on British aircraft production methods, suggested a synchronization gear of his own design. According to Russian sources, this gear had already been tested in Russia, with mixed results, although it is possible that the earlier Dibovski gear was actually a deflector system rather than a true synchronizer.


title: Synchronization gear

text: In any case, Warrant Officer F. W. Scarff worked with Dibovski to develop and realize the gear, which worked on the familiar cam and rider principle, the connection to the gun being by the usual push rod and a rather complicated series of levers. It was geared in order to slow the rate that firing impulses were delivered to the gun (and hence improve reliability, although not the rate of fire).


title: Synchronization gear

text: The gear was ordered for the Royal Naval Air Service and followed the Vickers-Challenger gear into production by a matter of weeks. It was more adaptable to rotary engines than the Vickers-Challenger, but apart from early Sopwith 1½ Strutters built to RNAS orders in 1916, and possibly some early Sopwith Pups, no actual applications seem to have been recorded.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The Ross gear was an interim, field-built gear designed in 1916 specifically to replace the unsuitable Vickers-Challenger gears in the 1½ Strutters of the RFC's No.70 Squadron. Officially it was designed by Captain Ross of No.70, although it has been suggested that a flight-sergeant working under Captain Ross was largely responsible. The gear was apparently used only on 1½ Strutters, but No. 45 squadron used at least some examples of the gear, as well as No. 70. It was replaced by the Sopwith-Kauper gear when that gear became available.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Norman Macmillan, writing some years after the event, claimed that the Ross gear had a very slow rate of fire, but that it left the original trigger intact, so that it was possible "in a really tight corner" to "fire the gun direct without the gear, and get the normal rate of fire of the ground gun". Macmillan claimed that propellers with up to twenty hits nonetheless got their aircraft home. Some aspects of this information are hard to reconcile with the way a synchronized gun actually worked, and may well be a matter of Macmillan's memory playing tricks.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Another "field made" synchronizer was the ARSIAD: produced by the "Aeroplane Repair Section of the No.1 Aircraft Depot" in 1916. Little specific seems to be known about it; although it may have been fitted to some early R.E.8s for which no Vickers-Challenger gears could be found.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Airco and Armstrong Whitworth both designed their own gears specifically for their own aircraft. Standardisation on the hydraulic C.C. gear (described below) occurred before either had been produced in numbers. Only Sopwiths' gear (next section) was to go into production.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The first mechanical synchronization gears fitted to early Sopwith fighters were so unsatisfactory that in mid 1916 Sopwiths had an improved gear designed by their foreman of works Harry Kauper, a friend and colleague of fellow Australian Harry Hawker. This gear was specifically intended to overcome the faults of earlier gears. Patents connected with the extensively modified Mk.II and Mk.III versions were applied for in January and June 1917.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Mechanical efficiency was improved by reversing the action of the push rod. The firing impulse was generated at a low point of the cam instead of at the lobe of the cam as in Saulnier's patent. Thus the force on the rod was exerted by tension rather than compression, (or in less technical language, the trigger motor worked by being "pulled" rather than "pushed") which enabled the rod to be lighter, minimising its inertia so that it could operate faster (at least in early versions of the gear, each revolution of the cam wheel produced two firing impulses instead of one). A single firing lever engaged the gear and fired the gun in one action, rather than the gear having to be "turned on" and then fired, as with some earlier gears.


title: Synchronization gear

text: 2,750 examples of the Sopwith-Kauper gear were installed in service aircraft: as well as being the standard gear for the Sopwith Pup and Triplane it was fitted to many early Camels, and replaced earlier gears in 1½ Strutters and other Sopwith types. However, by November 1917, in spite of several modifications, it was becoming evident that even the Sopwith-Kauper gear suffered from the inherent limitations of mechanical gears. Camel squadrons, in particular, reported that propellers were frequently being "shot through", the gears having a tendency to "run away". Wear and tear, as well as the increased rate of fire of the Vickers gun and higher engine speeds were responsible for this decline in performance and reliability. By this time the teething problems of the hydraulic C.C. gear had been overcome and it was made standard for all British aircraft, including Sopwiths.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Major Colley, the Chief Experimental Officer and Artillery Adviser at the War Office Munitions Invention Department, became interested in George Constantinesco's theory of Wave Transmission, and worked with him to determine how his invention could be put to practical use, finally hitting on the notion of developing a synchronization gear based on it. Major Colley used his contacts in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Artillery (his own corps) to obtain the loan of a Vickers machine gun and 1,000 rounds of ammunition.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Constantinesco drew on his work with rock drills to develop a synchronization gear using his wave transmission system. In May 1916, he prepared the first drawing and an experimental model of what became known as the Constantinesco Fire Control Gear or the "C.C. (Constantinesco-Colley) Gear". The first provisional patent application for the Gear was submitted on 14 July 1916 (No. 512).


title: Synchronization gear

text: At first, the meticulous Constantinesco was dissatisfied with the odd slightly deviant hit on his test disc. It was found that carefully inspecting the ammunition cured this fault (common, of course, to all such gears); with good quality rounds, the performance of the gear pleased even its creator. A. M. Low who commanded the Royal Flying Corps secret Experimental Works at Feltham was involved in the testing. The system was perfected by Constantinesco in collaboration with the Fleet Street printer and engineer Walter Haddon at the Haddon Engineering Works in Honeypot Lane, Alperton. The first working C.C. gear was air-tested in a B.E.2c in August 1916.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The new gear had several advantages over all mechanical gears: the rate of fire was greatly improved, the synchronization was much more accurate, and above all it was readily adaptable to any type of engine and airframe, instead of needing a specially designed impulse generator for each type of engine and special linkages for each type of aircraft. In the long run (provided it was properly maintained and adjusted) it also proved far more durable and less prone to failure.


title: Synchronization gear

text: No. 55 Squadron's DH.4s arrived in France on 6 March 1917 fitted with the new gear, followed shortly after by No. 48 squadron's Bristol Fighters and No. 56 Squadron's S.E.5s. Early production models had some teething troubles in service, as ground crew learned to service and adjust the new gears, and pilots to operate them. It was late in 1917 before a version of the gear that could operate twin guns became available, so that the first Sopwith Camels had to be fitted with the Sopwith-Kauper gear instead.


title: Synchronization gear

text: From November 1917 the gear finally became standard; being fitted to all new British aircraft with synchronized guns from that date up to the Gloster Gladiator of 1937.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Over 6,000 gears were fitted to machines of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service between March and December 1917. Twenty thousand more "Constantinesco-Colley" gun synchronization systems were fitted to British military aircraft between January and October 1918, during the period when the Royal Air Force was formed from the two earlier services on April 1, 1918. A total of 50,000 gears were manufactured during the twenty years it was standard equipment.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The C.C. gear was not the only hydraulic gear to be proposed; in 1917 Air Mechanic A.R. Betteridge of No.1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps built and tested a gear of his own design while serving with his unit in Palestine. No official interest was expressed in this device; possibly the C.C. gear was already in prospect. The illustration seems very likely to be of the test rig for this gear.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The French "Aviation Militaire" was fortunate in that they were able to standardise on two reasonably satisfactory synchronization gears – one adapted for rotary engines, and the other for "stationary" (in-line) ones – almost from the beginning.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The first French synchronizer was developed by "Sergeant-Mécanicien" Robert Alkan and "Ingénieur du Génie maritime" Hamy. It was based closely on the definitive Fokker "Stangensteuerung" gear: the main difference being that the push rod was installed within the Vickers gun, using a redundant steam tube in the cooling jacket. This mitigated a major drawback of other push rod gears in that the rod, being supported for its whole length, was much less liable to distortion or breakage. Vickers guns modified to take this gear can be distinguished by the housing for the push rod's spring, projecting from the front of the gun like a second barrel. This gear was first installed and air-tested in a Nieuport 12, on 2 May 1916, and other pre-production gears were fitted to contemporary Morane-Saulnier and Nieuport fighters. The Alkan-Hamy gear was standardised as the "Système de Synchronisation pour Vickers Type I (moteurs rotatifs)", becoming available in numbers in time for the arrival of the Nieuport 17 at the front in mid 1916, as the standard gear for forward-firing guns of rotary-engine French aircraft.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The Nieuport 28 used a different gear – now known only through American documentation, where it is described as the "Nieuport Synchronizing gear" or the "Gnome gear". A spinning drive shaft, driven by the rotating crankcase of the Nieuport's 160 CV Gnome 9N Monosoupape rotary engine, drove two separately adjustable trigger motors – each imparting firing impulses to its gun by means of its own short rod. Photographic evidence suggests that an earlier version of this gear, controlling a single gun, might have been fitted to the Nieuport 23 and the Hanriot HD.1.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The SPAD S.VII was designed around Marc Birkigt's Hispano-Suiza engine, and when the new fighter entered service in September 1916 it came armed with a single Vickers gun synchronized with a new gear provided by Birkigt for use with his engine. Unlike most other mechanical gears, the "SPAD gear" as it was often called, did without a pushrod altogether: the firing impulses being transmitted to the gun torsionally by a moving "oscillating" shaft, which rotated through about a quarter of a revolution, alternately clockwise and anticlockwise. This oscillation was more mechanically efficient than the reciprocating motion of a push rod, permitting higher speeds. Officially known as the "Système de Synchronisation pour Vickers Type II (moteurs fixes)" the Birkigt gear was later adapted to control two guns, and remained in use in French service up to the time of the Second World War.


title: Synchronization gear

text: No Russian synchronization gears went into production before the 1917 Revolution – although experiments by Victor Dibovski in 1915 contributed to the later British Scarff-Dibovski gear (described above), and another naval officer, G.I. Lavrov, also designed a gear that was fitted to the unsuccessful Sikorsky S-16. French and British designs licence-built in Russia used the Alkan-Hamy or Birkigt gears.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Fighters of the Soviet era used synchronized guns right up to the time of the Korean War, when the Lavochkin La-11 and the Yakovlev Yak-9 became the last synchronizer-equipped aircraft to see combat action.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The Italian Fiat-Revelli gun did not prove amenable to synchronization, so the Vickers became the standard pilot's weapon, synchronized by the Alkan-Hamy or Birkigt gears.


title: Synchronization gear

text: French and British combat aircraft ordered for the American Expeditionary Force in 1917/18 were fitted with their "native" synchronization gears, including the Alkan-Hamy in Nieuports and French-built Sopwiths, the Birkigt gear in SPADs, and the C.C. gear for British types. The C.C. was also adopted for the twin M1917/18 Marlin machine guns fitted to the American built DH-4, and was itself made in America until the Nelson gear appeared in numbers.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The Marlin gas operated gun proved less amenable to synchronization than the Vickers. It was found that "rogue" shots occasionally pierced the propeller, even when the gear was properly adjusted and otherwise functioning well. The problem was eventually resolved by modifications to the Marlin's trigger mechanism, but in the meantime the engineer Adolph L. Nelson at the Airplane Engineering Department at McCook Field had developed a new, mechanical gear especially adapted to the Marlin, officially known as the "Nelson single shot synchronizer." In place of the push rod common to many mechanical gears, or the "pull rod" of the Sopwith-Kauper, the Nelson gear used a cable held in tension for the transmission of firing impulses to the gun.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Production models were largely too late for use before the end of the First World War, but the Nelson gear became the post-war U.S. standard, as Vickers and Marlin guns were phased out in favour of the Browning .30 calibre machine gun.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The Nelson gear proved reliable and accurate, but it was expensive to produce and the necessity for its cable to be given a straight run could create difficulties when it was to be installed in a new type. By 1929 the latest model (the E-4 gear) had a new and simplified impulse generator, a new trigger motor, and the impulse cable was enclosed in a metal tube, protecting it, and permitting shallow bends. While the basic principle of the new gear remained unchanged: virtually all the components had been redesigned, and it was no longer officially referred to as the "Nelson" gear. The gear was further modernised in 1942 as the E-8. This final model had a modified impulse generator that was easier to adjust and was controlled from the cockpit by an electrical solenoid rather than a Bowden cable.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The usefulness of synchronization gears naturally disappeared altogether when jet engines eliminated the propeller, at least in fighter aircraft, but gun synchronization, even in single reciprocating engine aircraft, had already been in decline for twenty years prior to this.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The increased speeds of the new monoplanes of the mid to late 1930s meant that the time available to deliver a sufficient weight of fire to bring down an enemy aircraft was greatly reduced. At the same time, the primary vehicle of air power was increasingly seen as the large all-metal bomber: powerful enough to carry armour protection for its vulnerable areas. Two rifle-calibre machine guns were no longer enough, especially for defence planners who anticipated a primarily strategic role for airpower. An effective "anti-bomber" fighter needed something more.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Cantilever monoplane wings provided ample space to mount armament—and, being much more rigid than the old cable-braced wings, they afforded almost as steady a mounting as the fuselage. This new context also made the harmonisation of wing guns more satisfactory, producing a fairly narrow cone of fire in the close to medium ranges at which a fighter's gun armament was most effective.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The retention of fuselage-mounted guns, with the additional weight of their synchronization gear (which slowed their rate of fire, albeit only slightly, and still occasionally failed, resulting in damage to propellers) became increasingly unattractive. This design philosophy, common in Britain and France (and, after 1941, the United States) tended towards eliminating fuselage mounted guns altogether. For example, the original 1934 specifications for the Hawker Hurricane were for a similar armament to the Gloster Gladiator: four machine-guns, two in the wings and two in the fuselage, synchronized to fire through the propeller arc. The illustration opposite is of an early mock-up of the prototype, showing the starboard fuselage gun. The prototype ("K5083") as completed had ballast representing this armament; production Hurricane Is, however, were armed with eight guns, all in the wings.


title: Synchronization gear

text: Another approach, common to Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan, while recognising the necessity to increase armament, preferred a system that included synchronized weapons. Centralised guns had the real advantage that their range was limited only by ballistics, as they did not need the gun harmonisation necessary to concentrate the fire of wing-mounted guns. They were seen as rewarding the true marksman, as they involved less dependence on gun sight technology. Mounting guns in the fuselage also concentrated mass at the centre of gravity, thus improving the fighter's roll ability. More consistent ammunition manufacture, and improved synchronization gear systems made the whole concept more efficient and effective, whilst facilitating its application to weapons of increased calibre such as autocannon; moreover the constant-speed propellers that quickly became standard equipment on WW II fighters meant that the ratio between the propeller speed and the rate of fire of the guns varied less erratically.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The swan-song of synchronization belongs to the last reciprocating engine Soviet fighters, which largely made do with slow firing synchronized cannon throughout the World War II period and after. In fact, the very last synchronizer-equipped aircraft to see combat action were the Lavochkin La-11 and the Yakovlev Yak-9 during the Korean War.


title: Synchronization gear

text: The act of shooting one's own propeller is a trope that can be found in comedic gags, like the 1965 cartoon short "Just Plane Beep" starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. In this film, the attacking Coyote reduces his propeller to splinters after numerous bullets strike.


title: Heraklion International Airport

text: Heraklion International Airport "Nikos Kazantzakis" is the primary airport on the island of Crete, Greece, and the country's second busiest airport after Athens International Airport. It is located about 5 km east of the main city centre of Heraklion, near the municipality of Nea Alikarnassos. It is a shared civil/military facility. The airport is named after Heraklion native Nikos Kazantzakis, a Greek writer and philosopher. Nikos Kazantzakis Airport is Crete's main and busiest airport, serving Heraklion (Ηράκλειο), Aghios Nikolaos (Άγιος Νικόλαος), Malia (Mάλλια), Hersonissos (Χερσόνησος), Stalida (Σταλίδα), Elounda (Ελούντα) and other resorts.


title: Heraklion International Airport

text: A new airport for Heraklion, located 39 km to the south-east of the city at Kasteli, is under construction and due to open by 2025. Once completed, the new Kasteli International Airport will replace the current Heraklion International Airport as the hub for central Crete.


title: Heraklion International Airport

text: The airport first opened in March 1939. This was then merely a piece of flat agricultural land. The first aeroplane (a Junkers Ju 52) carried the first passengers to the site. During the Second World War, the airfield was the site of the Battle of Heraklion, during the Battle of Crete in 1941. Civilian operations ceased, but in the autumn of 1946 traffic resumed, introducing the DC-3 aircraft.


title: Heraklion International Airport

text: At first, the airport only offered very basic service, with only primitive installations on the site, in the form of three tents, smoke for wind determination and storm lamps for runway lighting.


title: Heraklion International Airport

text: In 1947, the first (small) terminal was erected. Hellenic Airlines started commercial flights in 1948. At that time, a total of 4,000 people were served. The year 1953 saw the construction of a paved runway which was initially 1,850 meters long and oriented as 09/27. The next major event followed in 1954, when a four-engined DC-4 aircraft landed for the first time at the airport. In that year the airport handled approximately 18,000 passengers. From 1957 onward, the new Olympic Airways used the airport, starting services with the DC-6 aircraft. Jojo AIr also flew here but ended service on July 2, 2001.


title: Heraklion International Airport

text: From 1968 until 1971, the runway was extended to 2,680 meters and a new terminal and other facilities were constructed, essentially making it a new airport. On March 18, 1971, the first charter flight from abroad (British Airways) operated at the airport. The new airport itself was officially inaugurated on May 5, 1972.


title: Heraklion International Airport

text: The airport will cease operations in 2025 and will be substituted by the new International Airport of Heraklion located in the region of Kasteli. For more info refer to www.iahc.gr


title: Heraklion International Airport

text: The latest extension began in October 2017 and was completed on 30 March 2018, in time for the airport's high season.


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: Maulik Navin Pancholy (, born January 18, 1974) is an American actor and author who is best known for his roles as Jonathan on "30 Rock", Baljeet Tjinder in "Phineas and Ferb", Neal in the first season of "Whitney", and as a character named Sanjay Patel in both "Weeds" and "Sanjay and Craig". His debut novel, "The Best at It" (from Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins), is about a gay, Indian American boy coming into his own. In 2022, he released "Nikhil Out Loud", which tells the story of eighth grade theater kids rising up against homophobia in their community.


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: Pancholy was born in Dayton, Ohio. He moved around while growing up, living in Ohio, Indiana, and Texas before his family settled in Tampa, Florida, where he attended junior high and high school at Berkeley Preparatory School. His family comes from Gujarat, and his grandparents lived in Ahmedabad. He is a 1991 graduate of the Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, and went on to major in Theatre at Northwestern University, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1995. He then attended the Yale School of Drama, where he received his Master of Fine Arts in 2003.


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: Pancholy played the character of Jonathan on the award-winning NBC series "30 Rock," Sanjay Patel on Showtime's "Weeds" and Nickelodeon's "Sanjay & Craig", Neal on the first season of NBC's "Whitney", and voiced the character of Baljeet Tjinder on Disney's "Phineas & Ferb". Additional television work includes guest roles on "The Good Fight", "The Good Wife", "Elementary", "Dynasty", "Friends from College", "Tracey Takes On...", "The Sopranos", "", and "The Comeback".


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: On February 13, 2017, StarTrek.com stated that Pancholy will play Nambue, Chief Medical Officer of the USS "Shenzhou" in the upcoming TV series "". His character appeared in the pilot episode, "The Vulcan Hello", which aired on 24 September 2017, and streamed on CBS's online service in America and Netflix abroad.


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: His stage credits in New York City include the Culture Project's production of "Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom" in 2004, a workshop of the play "Morbidity & Mortality" at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre in 2005, and the lead role in "India Awaiting" at the Samuel Beckett Theatre. In January 2015, he joined the cast of Terrence McNally's "It's Only a Play", replacing Rupert Grint when the production's Broadway run was extended. Washington DC stage credits include Katherina in an all-male version of the Shakespeare Theatre Company's "The Taming of The Shrew" in 2016. He starred as 'Kevin' in the world premiere engagement of Ken Urban's "The Remains" at the Studio Theatre in 2018.


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: In 2019, Pancholy played 'Tommy' in Bess Wohl's "Grand Horizons" at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. It was announced that he will reprise the role in Second Stage's Broadway production of the play at the Helen Hayes Theater.


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: Pancholy came out as gay in a November 2013 interview with "Out" in which he discussed his partner of nine years, chef and caterer Ryan Corvaia. They were engaged at the Taj Mahal in January 2014 and were married in September that year.


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: Pancholy speaks Gujarati and Spanish. He is also proficient in Hindi, which he speaks in the "30 Rock" episode "Khonani".


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: On April 25, 2014, Pancholy was named to President Barack Obama's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as part of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. On February 25, 2017, Pancholy and nine other members of the commission resigned from their positions, citing administrative actions by President Donald Trump that they claimed went "against the commission's principles".


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: Pancholy is active with several non-profit and social policy organizations including Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, and OutRight Action International, formerly known as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.


title: Maulik Pancholy

text: Pancholy is the Chair and Co-Founder of the anti-bullying nonprofit Act To Change. He helped launch the campaign during his time serving on President Obama's Advisory Commission. Act To Change was transitioned outside of the White House after the 2016 presidential election.


title: Jaycee Horn

text: Jaycee Carrington Horn (born November 26, 1999) is an American football cornerback for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at South Carolina and was drafted eighth overall by the Panthers in the 2021 NFL Draft. His father, Joe Horn, played wide receiver in the National Football League in the 1990s and 2000s.


title: Jaycee Horn

text: Horn attended Alpharetta High School in Alpharetta, Georgia. As a senior, he had 44 tackles and five interceptions. He played in the 2018 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. He was originally committed to play college football at the University of Tennessee but changed to the University of South Carolina.


title: Jaycee Horn

text: As a true freshman at South Carolina in 2018, Horn started 10 of 11 games and had 45 tackles with two sacks and was named freshman All-SEC. As a sophomore in 2019, he started all 12 games, recording 40 tackles and one sack. Horn returned to South Carolina as a starter in 2020.


title: Jaycee Horn

text: On November 16, 2020, following the dismissal of former head coach Will Muschamp, Horn opted out of the remainder of the season, turning his focus to preparation for the 2021 NFL Draft.


title: Jaycee Horn

text: He signed his four-year rookie contract on June 15, 2021, worth $21.1 million. Horn recorded his first career interception off Jameis Winston against the New Orleans Saints in the 26–7 win. During their 24–9 win against the Houston Texans, Horn suffered a fractured foot and was placed on injured reserve on September 27.


title: Jaycee Horn

text: His father, Joe Horn, played as a wide receiver in the NFL. He is also the brother of the free agent, Joe Horn Jr.


title: Empire: Total War

text: Empire: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. The fifth installment in the "Total War" series, the game was released in 2009. The game, which focuses on the early modern period of the 18th century, was announced at the Leipzig Games Convention in August 2007. The macOS version of the game was released by Feral Interactive on 10 June 2014. The Linux version was released, also by Feral Interactive, on 8 December 2014.


title: Empire: Total War

text: Players choose an 18th-century faction and set out to achieve domination over the known world through military force, diplomacy, espionage and economics. The interface and play are similar to earlier "Total War" titles: although the campaign element of the game is turn-based, players can direct battles in real-time. "Empire: Total War" is the first game in the series to allow naval battles to be conducted in real-time. In addition to the standard campaign mode, a special campaign follows the development of the United States from the settlement of Jamestown to the American War of Independence. Players may also recreate several historical battles from the early modern era, such as the Battle of Fontenoy, Battle of Rossbach, Battle of Pondicherry, Battle of Brandywine Creek and Battle of Lagos.


title: Empire: Total War

text: "Empire: Total War" was met with universal acclaim; several critics commended it as one of the foremost strategy titles of recent times. Praise was bestowed upon the extensive strategic breadth, accurate historical challenges and visual effects. The real-time land battles, with a far greater focus on gunpowder weaponry than earlier "Total War" titles, were considered successful. Criticisms focused on shortcomings with the game's artificial intelligence and on the real-time naval battles being difficult to control and co-ordinate. The game was a commercial success, topping sales charts within a week of release; nevertheless, several Creative Assembly employees later commented on various issues caused by a perceived early release.


title: Empire: Total War

text: On 18 November 2018, "Empire: Total War" (along with "Medieval II" and "Napoleon") was rebranded as "Total War: Empire – Definitive Edition", making all downloadable content free alongside the core game, and thus giving access to players who already owned a copy.


title: Empire: Total War

text: "Empire: Total War" is focused on exploration, economics, politics, religion, the founding of colonies and, ultimately, conquest. The game is set in the early modern period from 1700 until the end of the 18th century, allowing players to lead various nations and attempt to dominate Europe, the Middle East, India, North America and the Caribbean, along with the maritime trade theatres of the South American coast, Gulf of Guinea, Mozambique Channel and the East Indies. As with previous "Total War" games, "Empire: Total War" consists of two separate areas of gameplay: a turn-based geopolitical campaign that allows the user to deploy complex strategies by moving armies and navies across the globe, conducting diplomacy, trade, espionage, and managing the internal politics of their nation, as well as a real-time battle mode that enables players to command military forces in battle both on land and at sea.


title: Empire: Total War

text: The game features about fifty 18th-century factions; however, only eleven of the most powerful and influential are playable. In western Europe, these are Great Britain, France, the United Provinces, Spain and Sweden, and in central and eastern Europe, Prussia, Austria, Russia and Poland–Lithuania. In the Balkans and Middle East, the Ottoman Empire is the principal faction, while the Mughal Empire and Maratha Empire are the major powers on the Indian subcontinent. The New World colonies of the major powers are represented as protectorates of their home nation. The establishment of new nations during the era, such as Revolutionary France and the United States is reflected in the game, although these major events may be averted by player actions. Smaller factions, such as the German and Italian states, Native American tribes, and North African countries such as Morocco, are also represented.


title: Empire: Total War

text: A story-driven campaign entitled "Road to Independence" is also included, allowing the player to guide the foundation of the United States of America in three structured chapters. The first sees the player establish and develop the English colony of Jamestown, the second focuses on George Washington seeking to expel the French from the Ohio Valley in the French and Indian War, whilst the third has the player directing the American Continental Army against the British in the War of Independence. This campaign is goal-oriented and strictly historical, and also functions as a tutorial for the gameplay, both military, economic and political. Completion of "Road to Independence" unlocks the newly formed United States to use in a shorter, later version of the full campaign.


title: Empire: Total War

text: The main campaign of "Empire: Total War" involves a player choosing a faction and moving to forge a global empire during the 18th century. Each faction controls various historical provinces, each with a regional capital, and a number of other settlements ranging from minor villages to prosperous sea ports (as long as they are coastal territories). The player can recruit armies and navies to take and defend provinces by military means, or adopt diplomacy and politics to make advances in the game. In addition, players can use economics and religion to their advantage, as well as clandestine means such as espionage and assassination. The campaign mode is turn-based, with each turn representing six months starting in summer or winter, allowing the player to attend to all needs of their faction before ending their turn and allowing the artificial intelligence to make all other factions' moves.


title: Empire: Total War

text: The campaign mode is similar to those in "" and "", but with several enhancements. It features three main theatres of play: Europe (which also includes North Africa and the Middle East), the Americas, and the Indian subcontinent, as well as four minor trade theatres: the East Indies, the Ivory Coast, the Straits of Madagascar and Brazil. The way provinces work has been decentralised: although a central settlement is still used, other locations within a province can generate trade and technology, allowing factions to disrupt a province's productivity without assaulting the main settlement. Diplomacy, taxation, and trade have been streamlined to reduce the need for micromanagement, including allowing the player to appoint ministers to govern the nation. Previous Total War games required the player to promote a governor for each major city, whereas in Empire ministers' qualifications affect the government of all cities, modified in each case by the size of the metropolitan administration, reflecting the shift from premodern city-statehood to modern nation-statehood. The wandering scholars, spies, emissaries and assassins used in previous titles to deal with diplomacy, trade and espionage have been replaced with just three units: gentlemen, rakes, and missionaries. The former handle research and can challenge other characters to a duel (thus eliminating the diplomatic risk of being implicated in an assassination plot), while rakes perform clandestine tasks such as spying, assassination, and sabotage. Missionaries serve to convert the populace to the state religion, which reduces religious unrest and softens cultural unrest. Isomorphic units also exist for the Ottomans, Persians, and other near eastern nations, replacing rakes with Hashashin, while Indian nations use Thugees for the same purposes, and all nations south and east of the Ottoman Empire use Eastern Scholars instead of gentlemen (although these cannot duel). The isomorphic religious leaders are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant missionaries, Imams, and Brahmin. The way armies are produced also differs: in addition to being produced at settlements, generals can now build their armies in the field by recruiting from nearby settlements. Players can now research technologies along a technology tree, advancing in areas such as infrastructure, politics, agriculture and the military.


title: Empire: Total War

text: Changes in government may occur during the campaign, for example as a consequence of a rise in republicanism. The United States may only come into existence if the ruling British Empire is unable to maintain social order. In addition, nations with highly unpopular governments and a history of workers' unrest may experience revolutions similar to the French Revolution. When the middle or upper classes become disenchanted with a current government, a civil war or revolt may occur. Upon revolution, the player can choose to side with the rebels or with the loyalists. The type of government selected by the player will determine how other factions view the player and influence their diplomatic relations. While religion no longer plays a central role (as in "Medieval II: Total War"), it is still important in helping bring under control newly captured regions and in influencing diplomatic relations between nations.


title: Empire: Total War

text: Factions will have varying objectives as their victory conditions, such as establishing successful colonies and trade routes, and controlling specified regions.


title: Empire: Total War

text: In January 2009, after the delay of the release of "Empire: Total War", the addition of a full campaign multiplayer mode was unveiled. The technology to create a multiplayer campaign game was not available in previous "Total War" games, and the extended development, due to the delayed release, allowed the Creative Assembly to implement the underlying technology for such a mode in "Empire: Total War". On 7 December 2009 Sega released keys for a beta multiplayer campaign where two players could play online together as separate nations. Eventually, due to the incomplete and buggy nature of the beta alongside other development focuses, it was cancelled, never being fully patched into the game. In 2013, CA's community team released some additional keys for fans of the game, so they could play the incomplete multiplayer beta. Even after the closing date at the end of 2013, beta keys for the campaign was still available from Sega customer support.


title: Empire: Total War

text: The second major area of gameplay is the battle system. Unlike the campaign game, here players control battles in real-time. As with all titles in the series after "", battles can take place on both land and at sea. However, "Empire" is the first to allow naval battles to be fought in real-time; in previous titles they were automatically resolved by the game's artificial intelligence. Automatic resolution of battles remains an option for both land and sea battles. Separately from the main campaign game, players can recreate individual historical battles in the 18th century and early 19th century.


title: Empire: Total War

text: In land engagements, players have an 18th-century army consisting of units such as cavalry, musketeers, riflemen and artillery. Each has its own intrinsic advantages, disadvantages, cost, and overall effectiveness. Players must use 18th-century tactics and formations to defeat their enemies. The battlefield terrain and the weather are also important. Factions can lay siege to settlements, replacing open land battles with street fighting and close-quarter combat. Each unit has morale, which increases if the battle goes well, or decrease after heavy casualties, army losses, coming under artillery bombardment, or with the death of the general. Tactical situations such as attacking from a flank or the rear, or depriving a unit of allied reinforcements, also hit morale. When a unit's morale is sufficiently depleted, it will be routed and flee the battlefield. Depending on whether morale is merely broken or entirely shattered, the player may be able to rally the unit and regroup. Victory is achieved by causing every enemy unit to rout, or be annihilated. In addition, sieges can be won if the attacker manages to take control of the settlement's central square for a set amount of time. "Empire: Total War" also introduces several new battlefield elements to the "Total War" series. Units can take cover behind walls or in buildings, allowing increased interactivity with the terrain and making some buildings points of tactical importance. Field defences may be constructed on the battlefield. Infantry units can also scale small obstacles such as walls and fences. Each unit has different capabilities such as Square Formation, Wedge, Diamond, Equip bayonets, or Fire at will.


title: Empire: Total War

text: In naval battles, players control a fleet of up to twenty varied ships, and use 18th-century tactics to overcome enemy fleets. As with army units, each ship's crew has a set amount of morale that changes as a battle progresses; a crew may attempt to withdraw their vessel from the battle if their morale is broken, or in extreme cases may surrender. A battle is won when all hostile ships have been sunk, captured, or have left the map. Individual ships can be maneuvered, or remain in formation with other ships from the fleet. Players can designate which parts of a hostile ship they want a crew to target, making ships prone to sustaining authentic damage during a battle: masts can be toppled, sails and gun ports can be destroyed and damage can entirely disable a ship's ability to manoeuvre or eventually sink it. The types of ammunition can be used during a battle are grapeshot, chain-shot and round shot, which have different uses, from killing enemy crew to disabling enemy movement. As battles progress, crews can try to board enemy vessels and fight hand-to-hand in an attempt to capture the ship. The weather in a naval battle is also important; bad weather can create poor visibility. Ships cannot be repaired in mid-battle unlike its successor, "", but fires on board ships can be put out automatically.


title: Empire: Total War

text: "Empire: Total War" was announced by Creative Assembly and publisher Sega at the Leipzig Games Convention on 22 August 2007. In their press release, Creative Assembly outlined various features in the game, such as the new game engine and the addition of real-time naval combat. However, while the game had been in the planning stages since the release of "", it was still in early development; no gameplay footage was demonstrated at the convention. The game was announced alongside The Creative Assembly's console title "". Media releases over the subsequent months showed screenshots of the game and elaborated more on "Empire: Total War"s game mechanics. The game's trailer, consisting of computer-generated cut scene footage, was released 10 July 2008. A playable demonstration of the game's naval combat was showcased at the E3 convention later in July 2008, where it was estimated that the game would ship in 2009. The land combat was demonstrated at the later 2008 Leipzig Game Convention in August 2008. At the convention, Creative Assembly announced that the game was out of the alpha development phase, and that they were aiming for a release date of 6 February 2009.


title: Empire: Total War

text: On 28 October 2008, it was announced that the game would be released on Valve's content delivery system Steam on the official release date of 6 February; the game requires Steam to install and run for both retail and electronic versions and is integrated into Valve's Steamworks programme to allow updates and multiplayer to function more efficiently. The game's release was delayed in December 2008 to allow for the development of extended multiplayer features, with a new release date for March 2009. A demonstration of the game, featuring the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Lagos, was released over Steam on 20 February 2009. The game was released on 3 March 2009. Since release, "Empire: Total War" has been subject to updates delivered through the Steam system, aimed at optimising performance and removing any bugs remaining in the game.


title: Empire: Total War

text: James Russell, the lead designer on the project, stated in an interview that the 18th century was chosen as the setting as "it's a fabulously colourful period... the 18th century is the great age of fighting sail, and it's the obvious arena in which to set our spectacular new sea battles." Russell also stated that the dynamic and far-reaching changes of the era, from political revolutions such as the French Revolution, economic revolutions such as the Industrial Revolution to military revolutions such as the widespread use of gunpowder, gave the "opportunity to develop some really interesting new features and gameplay dynamics that make for a lot of variation". Motion capture animation was used extensively to make characters seem more lifelike. For increased authenticity, research was conducted into 18th-century aspects such as duels, although designers also observed the choreography of actors in related films and TV series, such as "Sharpe".


title: Empire: Total War

text: "Empire: Total War" ships with nine different versions of box art, eight of which represent the major faction for the market the game is sold in, and one general international version. For instance, German customers are presented artwork displaying colours with the Prussian eagle and Prussian army uniforms, whilst the American artwork shows the American revolutionaries and the Betsy Ross flag. A special edition version of "Empire: Total War" entitled "Special Forces" incorporates six elite faction-specific units: HMS "Victory", the French Irish Brigade, Spanish guerillas, Gurkha infantry, Rogers' Rangers and the Ottoman Ribauldequin. Additionally, three retailers were provided with a special unit for customers to receive; Amazon.com customers were given the Dahomey Amazons, buyers from Best Buy were able to receive the USS "Constitution" and customers buying from Game received the Death's Head Hussars. A further 14 units were added with the objective of increasing graphical and unit variety among the factions. These 14 units were released as part of the game's 1.3 patch in June 2009; accompanying the update was a second set of 14 units, released as downloadable content for purchase.


title: Empire: Total War

text: In September 2009, a DLC pack titled "The Warpath Campaign" was announced for release the following month, as was the next game in the series, "". The campaign, released as downloadable content, focuses on the battles of the Europeans and Native Americans throughout most of North and Central America. The new campaign expands the North American territories and features 5 new playable factions: Iroquois, Cherokee, Huron, Pueblo and Plains Nations. New researchable technologies were also added, along with the new scout and shaman agents and new faction-specific objectives. "Napoleon: Total War", released February 2010, focuses on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, building upon the technology used for "Empire: Total War". Napoleon was released as a standalone game rather than an expansion for a number of reasons, mostly to do with technical limitations; according to Mike Simpson "the level of detail required to successfully depict the Napoleonic Wars is an order of magnitude greater than we were working to with "Empire: Total War"". Empire and Napoleon Total War Collection – Game of the Year was then released on 1 October 2010 joining both games together, including all of the available downloadable content.


title: Empire: Total War

text: "Empire: Total War" was released on 3 March 2009 to the North American market, on 4 March in Europe, on 5 March in Australia, and on Christmas Day in Japan. The game has become the fastest selling "Total War" title to date; "Empire" topped British video game sales charts for all platforms in the week of release, the first PC exclusive title to do so in a year and a half. The game was reported to have sold nearly double the number of "" and "". In the United States, "Empire: Total War" and its "Special Forces" edition were ranked as first and second respectively in the PC sales charts for the week of release. The game's Australian version debuted as the top PC game; across all platforms "Empire: Total War" was ranked fourth, behind "Halo Wars", "Wii Fit" and "Killzone 2". Sega reported the game sold 810,000 units worldwide during their last fiscal year period of 2008. However, consumer response was hampered by technical problems arising from incompatibility with certain Nvidia drivers released after the game's development was completed and reports of installation problems with the Steam content delivery system. In an interview with IGN, Studio Communications Manager Kieran Brigden discussed the problems inherent in developing such a huge and ambitious game, saying: "Are there some issues with "Empire"? Yes there are." As part of its post-release support, he said that Creative Assembly is planning on addressing issues with stability and performance, as well as adding improvements for gameplay and artificial intelligence.


title: Empire: Total War

text: Mike Simpson, Creative Assembly's studio director, started a blog in October 2009, in a deliberate attempt to engage with the game's user community and counter some of the negative reaction which the game had received. He explained The Creative Assembly "were not entirely happy with the state of "Empire: Total War" when it went out", but felt the Metacritic user rating of 67 percent was unfair, stating that his reason for blogging was a concern that the negative ratings could even damage the amount of money available for developing future games. In later posts he described the February 2009 release date as "commercial reality", and explained why they had hit significant problems with the game's AI close to release. Simpson describes the campaign AI as "by far the most complex code edifice I’ve ever seen in a game", and said that they had reached a tipping point where consideration of too many factors led to an AI which "disagrees with itself chronically and often ends up paralysed by indecision". It was only after patch 1.5—six months after the original release—that Simpson felt comfortable sending it to friends of his, having previously been too embarrassed about the flaws. With regard to the battle AI, Simpson said that the lead battle AI programmer had left to return to his family just before the end of the project. The battle AI at that stage struggled to beat good players even with an obvious level of handicapping, and it had taken some time for other programmers to understand three years' worth of code; progress had been "frustratingly slow" as they strived for a game where real world tactics would work.


title: Empire: Total War

text: "Empire: Total War" received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Reviewers praised the large scope of the game's strategy map "PC Gamer UK" noted that the game "takes a great deal of its design philosophy from the events and trends of its era", which enabled the game to reasonably reflect the challenges faced by the factions' historical counterparts. Praise was also given to the extensive number of factions, down to very small factions such as the Knights of St. John and a renegade pirate settlement. Kieron Gillen, reviewing for Eurogamer, described the campaign map as "endless" and due to the large amount of content, observed that he had managed to complete the entire campaign without even visiting the Indian theatre of play (approximately a full one fourth of the playable game world); a factor that enhanced the game's replayability. Other reviews echoed this sentiment; GameSpot stated that "even a short, 50-year campaign can take a good amount of time to complete, given that each turn requires strategic thinking on multiple fronts". Praise was further bestowed on the refined interface, introduction of a technology tree and level of strategic thinking required for the campaign map. However, some reviewers noted inconsistent behaviour with the campaign artificial intelligence; 1UP.com noted that it could perform illogical choices, such as "the occasional suicidal war between Dagestan and Russia", while "GamePro" was critical of the artificial intelligence in a number of areas, including the inability to mount a naval invasion or utilise effective strategies on the campaign map.


title: Empire: Total War

text: The real-time land battles in "Empire" were considered well constructed. Expressing that The Creative Assembly had effectively implemented what it had learned since "Shogun: Total War", GameSpy described the addition of personal firearms and friendly fire as something that "changes the tactical nature of the game much as it did in real life", and noting that the player controls and enemy AI were "competent". IGN felt that the real-time aspects captured "the cinematic brilliance of it all without ever falling back on obvious exaggerations or pretenses" and that the controls, specifically in relation to unit formation, were much improved. GameSpot put the real-time land battles as "enjoyable to command and enjoyable to watch", particularly commending the amount of detail in each model and animation for every soldier, points carried in several other reviews. However, GameSpot thought that the artificial intelligence could appear "confused" in some circumstances, and the "Game Informer" "second opinion" review said that "the enemy AI falls apart from time to time". In addition, Eurogamer felt that units' pathfinding abilities in fort sieges were insufficient, and "Game Informer" also criticised pathfinding around obstacles.


title: Empire: Total War

text: Naval combat was subject to more criticism than land battles. "PC Format" described the visuals in a naval battle as "incredible", but stated that the controls were "frustrating; genuine naval tactics fast disappear out of the window as [the player] struggles to bring [their] navy’s cannons to bear on the enemy". "PC Gamer UK" reciprocated this view, but noted that naval strategy was a "deeply difficult task" for a developer, and that "The Creative Assembly have done the best that their game template would allow". IGN praised the graphical quality of the naval battles and stated that "trying to line ships up correctly, making the most of the wind and choosing targets appropriately is very rewarding", but that "the formations and pathfinding leave a lot to be desired". GameSpot commented that "the AI seems incapable of managing [a naval battle] with much success".


title: Empire: Total War

text: Despite criticisms, most reviews were ultimately favourable to "Empire: Total War". While IGN felt that the game "drags a bit and there are some small, rough edges in the tactical battles", the game still "deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the greatest names in gaming history". 1UP.com finished by saying "For all its problems, it's undoubtedly progress", while Eurogamer felt that issues "limit [the game] to being merely one of the games of the year," but implied that a post-release patch could deal with these flaws. GameSpot summarised that the game was "complex and rewarding" and GameSpy praised the game for "the simplified interface elements, great campaign, and much-improved map and information screens [that] make this the most accessible "Total War" yet, and a great place for those unfamiliar with the series to get started". "Crispy Gamer", while acclaiming the game "spectacular" and "lovingly historical", criticised the documentation and concluded that the game falls apart due to its bad AI. The "Game Informer" reviewers criticised the AI, but still described the overall game experience as "fantastic" and "outstanding". "GamePro" provided a dissenting opinion; although describing "Empire: Total War" as a game with a potential that "with some extra tweaking, could have proven itself an excellent title", noted that it "has a heap of problems that need resolving" with bugs and crashes. "PC Gamer UK" enthusiastically proclaimed the game as "one of the most playable, important and accomplished games ever created".


title: Empire: Total War

text: The downloadable content "The Warpath Campaign" was criticised by Game Watcher for not integrating into the original campaign and for only adding a few new units. Concerns were also voiced about the difficulty curve, though the reviewer felt the DLC provided players a challenge by playing as the technologically backward Native Americans against the European interlopers.


title: Pelican crossing

text: A pelican crossing, or archaically pelicon crossing (PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled), is a type of pedestrian crossing with traffic signals for both pedestrians and vehicular traffic, activated by call buttons for pedestrians, with the walk signal being directly across the road from the pedestrian. The design is also found in the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, the island of Ireland, Indonesia and Australia. The crossings began to be phased out in Great Britain in 2016, being replaced with puffin crossings which have pedestrian signals above the call button rather than across the road.


title: Pelican crossing

text: The crossing is usually formed of two poles on either side of the road, each containing three signal heads (one in each direction for drivers and one facing pedestrians) and a call button unit for pedestrians to operate the crossing. The crossing type is distinctive for fixed signal timings (as opposed to the variable timings of puffin crossings and the flashing amber/green man phase, which allows the crossing to clear and drivers to continue when it is. An audible bleep and tactile rotating cone are normally present to aid visually impaired pedestrians.


title: Pelican crossing

text: Pelican crossings are ubiquitous in many countries, but usage of the phrase "pelican crossing" is confined mainly to the UK and Ireland. A comparable system called the HAWK beacon is used in the United States.


title: Pelican crossing

text: The name is derived from "PELICON", a portmanteau of "pe"destrian "li"ght "con"trolled. The term "pelican crossing" originated in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, but similar traffic control devices are in use throughout the world. The term is also used in the Republic of Ireland.


title: Pelican crossing

text: The pelican crossing was a relatively minor development of the "x–way" crossing. This earlier crossing was largely identical to the pelican crossing, but instead of a green light for motorists, featured a white diagonal cross. The intention of this was to distinguish the crossing lights from any nearby junction (standard) traffic lights. The white cross was widely criticised and users and motoring organisations alike called for the white cross to be replaced by a green light. With some changes to the light timings and road markings, the "x–way" crossing became the pelican crossing.


title: Pelican crossing

text: In the United Kingdom, the pelican crossing was the first definitive light-controlled crossing for pedestrians, introduced in 1969. This was after the earlier failed experiment of the panda crossing. Previously only zebra crossings had been used, which have warning signals (Belisha beacons), but no control signals.


title: Pelican crossing

text: In 1974, cast from "Dad's Army" performed a public information film to explain the pelican crossing, and how it works. In 1976, Paul Greenwood sung "The Pelican Crossing Song", again explaining how a pelican crossing works. In 2000, Shooglenifty incorporated samples of a pelican crossing into their album "Solar Shears".


title: Pelican crossing

text: Statutory authority for pelican crossings was removed in the 2016 update of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions. After 22 October 2016, no new pelican crossings can be installed on public highways in the UK, except work in progress where there was a six-month saving. Puffin crossings are to be installed instead.


title: Pelican crossing

text: Additionally, a pelican crossing, as distinct from a puffin crossing, has the special feature that while the green man flashes to indicate that pedestrians may continue crossing but may not start to cross, the red light changes to an amber flashing light permitting cars to pass if there are no further pedestrians. This reduces the delay to traffic.


title: Pelican crossing

text: Under UK law, pelican crossings that go straight across the road are defined as a single crossing, even when there is a central island. Therefore, traffic in both directions must wait until pedestrians have finished crossing and the signal is green or flashing amber. This rule is different from similar standard pedestrian crossings where each portion of the crossing is treated as a separate crossing. However, at installations where the crossings that cross each carriageway are separate crossings, the crossing is staggered.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Sexual coercion among animals is the use of violence, threats, harassment, and other tactics to help them forcefully copulate. Such behavior has been compared to sexual assault, including rape, among humans.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: In nature, males and females usually differ in reproductive fitness optima. Males generally prefer to maximize their number of offspring, and therefore their number of mates; females, on the other hand, tend to care more for their offspring and have fewer mates. Because of this, there are generally more males available to mate at a given time, making females a limited resource. This leads males to evolve aggressive mating behaviors which can help them acquire mates.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Sexual coercion has been observed in many species, including mammals, birds, insects, and fish. While sexual coercion does help increase male fitness, it is very often costly to females. Sexual coercion has been observed to have consequences, such as intersexual coevolution, speciation, and sexual dimorphism.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Harassment is a technique used by males of many species to force females to submit to mating. It has been observed in numerous species, including mammals, birds, insects and fish. Aggression and harassment have been documented in the males of guppies ("Poecilia reticulata"), bottlenose dolphins ("Tursiops aduncus"), botos ("Inia geoffrensis"), dusky dolphins ("Lagenorhynchus obscurus"), Hector's dolphins ("Cephalorhynchus hectori"), grizzly bears, polar bears, and ungulates. It is also seen in Chinook salmon ("Oncorhynchus tshawytscha"), red-spotted newts ("Notophthalmus viridescens"), and seed-eating true bugs ("Neacoryphus" spp.). Furthermore, it is prevalent in spider monkeys, wild Barbary macaques ("Macaca sylvanus") and many other primates.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: In basically all major primate taxa, aggression is used by the dominant males when herding females and keeping them away from other males. In hamadryas baboons, the males often bite the females’ necks and threaten them. Wild chimpanzees can charge at females, shake branches, hit, slap, kick, pound, drag, and bite them. Orangutans are among the most forceful of mammals. Bornean orangutans ("Pongo pygmaeus") exhibited aggression in almost 90 percent of their copulations, including when the females were not resisting. A possible explanation for aggressive behaviors in primates is that it is a way for males to train females to be afraid of them and be more likely to surrender to future sexual advances.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Males may also use more indirect techniques to mate with females, such as intimidation. While most female water striders (Gerridae) have their genitalia exposed, females of the water strider species "Gerris gracilicornis" have evolved a shield over their genitals. As a result, males cannot physically coerce females because mating is difficult unless the female exposes her genitalia. Therefore, males intimidate females into mating by attracting predators; they tap on the water's surface and create ripples that catch the attention of predatory fish. From there, it is in the best interest of the female to mate, and as quickly as possible, to avoid being eaten by predators. Typical mating positions of water striders have the females on the bottom, closer to predators, so the risk of predation is much higher for them. Females succumb to copulation to get males to cease signaling to predators.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Another indirect form of sexual coercion occurs in red-sided garter snakes, "Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis". When males "court" females, they line their bodies up to the females' and produce caudocephalic waves, which are a series of muscle contractions that travel through their bodies from tail to head. The exact reason for this behavior is unknown, but some studies show that it relates to stress. Females have nonrespiratory air sacs containing anoxic air, and the waving pushes this air into her lungs. The resulting stress causes her cloaca to open, and aids the male in inserting his hemipenis. The stronger and more frequent the caudocephalic waves and the closer the male's cloaca to the female's, the more likely the male is to mate successfully.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Males of certain species have evolved mating behaviors in which they forcefully attempt to mate with and inseminate females, often employing grasping techniques. These male grasping devices exist to increase the duration of copulation and restrict females from mating with other males. They are in some ways a form of mate guarding. While some males have evolved different types of modifications to aid in grasping, others just grab females and attempt to force copulation.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: One type of grasping modification is spiky male genitalia. In seed beetles (Coleoptera: Bruchidae), males possess sclerotized spines on their genitalia. These spines are used during copulation to help overcome female resistance and penetrate into their copulatory duct. In addition to aiding penetration, these spines promote the passage of seminal fluids, and act as an anchor to keep the female from fleeing. Furthermore, spiny genitals can injure the females and make them less likely to remate. Sepsidae fly males have modifications on their forelegs to help them grasp onto female wing bases. These modifications include cuticular outgrowths, indentations, and bristles, and males use them to secure themselves onto females after jumping on them. Once the males grab on, a struggle ensues akin to a rodeo, where males try to hold on while females violently shake them off.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Another type of modification is found in male diving beetles (of the family Dytiscidae), who are equipped with suction cup structures on their front legs. They use these to grab passing females and attach to their dorsal surfaces. To get the females to submit, males shake the females violently and keep them submerged underwater (diving beetles cannot go long without atmospheric oxygen). Unable to get air, female diving beetles submit to the male's advances in order to avoid drowning (and they lose the energy to resist). Once the males attach, copulation can occur.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Male waterfowl have developed another modification; while most male birds have no external genitalia, male waterfowl (Aves: Anatidae) have a phallus (length ). Most birds mate with the males balancing on top of the females and touching cloacas in a “cloacal kiss”; this makes forceful insemination very difficult. The phallus that male waterfowl have evolved everts out of their bodies (in a clockwise coil) and aids in inseminating females without their cooperation.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Another such technique is having a "lock-like" mechanism, found in "Drosophila montana", dogs, wolves, and pigs. Towards the end of copulation, females struggle to try to dislodge the males, whose genital organs take much longer to deflate than females do; the locking (most commonly known in canids as a "tie") allows the males to copulate for as long as they need to until they are finished. In dogs, the male has a knot in his penis that gets engorged with blood and ties the female, locking them together during copulation, until the act is complete. Male dogs have evolved this mechanism during mating in order to prevent other males from penetration whilst they are and the use of the tie enables them to be more likely to inseminate the female and produce a healthy litter of pups. Breaking this "tie" can be physically harmful to both females and males.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Males of many species simply grab the females and force a mating. Coercive mating is very common in water striders (Gerridae) because in most of the species, the female genitalia are often exposed and easily accessible to males. Without any courtship behavior, males initiate by forcefully trying to mount the females. Carrying the males on their backs is energetically costly to females, so they try to resist and throw off the males. The males fight back even harder and use their forelegs to tightly grasp the female's thorax and keep them from escaping. The males then forcefully insert their genitalia into the female vulvar opening. In the newt species "Notophthalmus viridescens", males carry out a courtship behavior called amplexus. It consists of males capturing females that do not want to mate with them and using their hind limbs to grasp the females by their pectoral regions.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Male guppies ("Poecilia reticulata") have been observed to forcefully copulate with females by trying to insert their gonopodium (male sex organ) into female's genital pores, whether or not they are accepting. Sometimes, male guppies also try to forcefully mate with "Skiffia bilineata" (goodeid) females, which resemble guppy females and tend to share the same habitat, even when guppy females are available. A possible explanation for this is the deeper genital cavity of "S. bilineata", which stimulates the males more than when mating with guppy females.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Males of some species are able to immobilize females and force copulation. In pigs and boars, males grab females and maneuver the pelvis to lift the vaginal opening and facilitate copulation. The stimulation following intromission causes the female to be immobilized. The male can then freely continue copulation without worrying about the female escaping. Immobilization of the female also occurs in muscovy ducks.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Grasping and/or grappling mating situations have also been documented in "Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis haemorrhoidalis" (Odonata), fallow deer ("Dama dama"), wild orangutans (Smuts 1993), wild chimpanzees, water voles (semi-aquatic rats) "Arvicola amphibius", feral fowl, mallard ("Anas platyrhynchos"), hamadryas baboons and many other primates, coho salmon ("Oncorhynchus kisutch"), and others.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: In some mammal species, mostly nonhuman primates, it is common for males to commit infanticide to mate with females. This happens often in species that live in groups, such as Old and New World monkeys, apes, prosimians, and hamadryas baboons. There is usually a single breeding male in a group, and when an outside male aggressively takes over, he kills off all of the young offspring. The males kill infants that are not their own to assert their strength and position, and mate with the females. Sometimes, multiple males will invade a troop and gang up on females, killing their offspring and subsequently mating with them. This occurs in spider monkeys, red-backed squirrel monkeys, chimpanzees, and red howlers.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: In the newt species "Notophthalmus viridescens", the males rub off hormonal secretions onto the skin of the females they are courting. These hormones have been shown to make the female more receptive to mating with the male. When the male deposits the secretions, he detaches from the female and releases a spermatophore (containing spermatozoa). It is then the female's decision to either accept it and pick it up or reject it by running away; these hormones make her more likely to accept it.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Another form of coercion is male mate guarding, used to keep females from mating with other males, and often involves aggression. Guarding allows the males to ensure their paternity. A classic example occurs in diving beetles, family Dytiscidae. After copulation, males continue to guard females for up to six hours. They hold them underwater, occasionally tilting them up for air. Guarding also occurs in water striders where, once males complete their sperm transfer, they often remain on top of the females. This guarding duration varies, lasting from several minutes to several weeks. The purpose of such long guarding periods is for the males to see the females lay their eggs and be assured that the offspring are theirs. This behavior also occurs in hamadryas baboons ("Papio hamadryas"), where the leader males practice intensive mate guarding. In "Drosophila" Montana, studies have shown that following mate guarding, the chances of a female mating with or being inseminated by another male were greatly diminished. This shows that the mate guarding tactic can be very effective.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Males of some species use bodily fluids, such as seminal fluid from their ejaculate, to aid in the coercion of females. Seminal fluid in males of Drosophila melanogaster may contain chemicals that increase the amount of time it takes for females to remate, decrease the length of successive matings, or keep her from remating at all. The less a female mates with other males after copulation with a male, the more likely it is for him to ensure his paternity. These chemicals may also serve to increase the female's reproductive success, but at the cost of decreased longevity and immune response.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: In many species, seminal fluid can be used as a sort of mating plug. Males of these species transfer their sperm at the beginning of copulation and use the rest of copulation to transfer substances that help build up the mating plugs. These plugs are effective in ensuring that the female does not mate with any other males and that the male's paternity is secured.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: A major direct cost of sexual coercion is physical injury. Male seed beetles (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) have sclerotized spines on their genitalia, which penetrate the female and leave melanized scars. Females can be physically injured from just one mating, and the more a female mates, the more scarring forms in the copulatory duct. In guppies, the male's gonopodium can cause damage when forcefully inserted, causing cloacal damage to the females. In fowl, females can be physically injured during forceful copulations. Also, semen transferred from the males can contain pathogens and fecal matter, which can lead to disease and decrease female fitness. In elephant seals, physical injury happens very often. In fact, mating leads to 1 in every 1,000 female elephant seals getting killed. Other species in which the females (and/or their offspring) are injured or even killed include lions, rodents, farm cats, crabeater seals, sea lions, bottle-nosed dolphins ("Tursiops truncatus"), red-sided garter snakes ("Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis"), and newts ("N. viridescens").


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Another cost is the excess energy and time expenditure that comes with mating. For example, female water striders, Gerridae, and marine snails of the genus "Littorina" 24 have to carry the males on their backs while they mate. First of all, this is a great loss of energy. Second, both the male and the female are at a much greater risk of predation in this position. Furthermore, the time spent mating interferes with the time that could have been spent foraging and feeding.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: In addition, sexual coercion can lower body condition and immunity in ways other than physical damage. Harassment can lead to stress, which can result in weight loss, decreased immune function and energy stores, and less feeding, which has been seen in red-spotted newts. Furthermore, when females are constantly moving around to avoid violent males, they are not able to form female social ties (for example, Grévy's zebra/Equus grevyi). This also happens in species where herding males sometimes do not permit females to join their family in different groups, like in hamadryas baboons.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Indirect costs are those that affect females in the future. One such cost happens because sexual coercion does not allow females to choose the males they want to mate with, which are usually males that are higher quality, compatible, and/or have good genes that will increase their offspring's survival and fitness. Coercion decreases this choice and can lead to their offspring having lower genetic quality. Studies of the rose bitterling (Rhodeus ocellatus), have shown that offspring of females with mate choice had higher survival rates than offspring of females that did not. Another ultimate cost comes from when males commit infanticide to obtain mating access. This loss of offspring leads to a decrease in fitness of females.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: As a response to sexual coercion and the costs that females face, one of their counter-adaptations is the evolution of anatomical protection. Females of some species, such as the water striders, developed morphological shields to protect their genitalia from males that want to forcefully copulate. Some Gerridae females have also evolved abdominal spines and altered the shapes of their abdomens to make them less accessible to males.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Waterfowl males of the family Aves: Anatidae have evolved a phallus to aid in coercion. This phallus everts out of the male body (when it's time to mate) in a counter-clockwise coil. As a response, females have developed vaginal structures called dead end sacs and clockwise coils to protect themselves from forceful intromission. Waterfowl females have evolved these “convoluted vaginal morphologies” to make it harder for males to insert themselves without the female's consent.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Another female tactic to counter coercion is to try to avoid males that may cause them harm. To do this, females often change their habitats to get away from aggressive males, as is seen in wild Trinidadian guppies ("Poecilia reticulata"). Female bottlenose dolphins behave in similar ways by moving into shallow waters where there are not too many males. Other species that practice mate avoidance are "Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis", a species of damselfly, who often try to hide from large groups of males to avoid harassment.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Females of the marine intertidal periwinkle species (genus "Littorina") have another way to avoid males. Males usually recognize female snails by cues in their mucous trails. However, females try to mask their sex by altering these cues. In damselflies, females also try to mask their gender by mimicking male colors, which make them less attractive to males.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: An effective female strategy is the employment of protection and alliances. Some females, such as wild Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulate) associate themselves with protective males who come to their rescue. This also occurs in hamadryas, savanna, and olive baboons, where males and females form friendships where the female gets male protection. In northern elephant seals, the females give loud cries when mounted by undesirable or subordinate males, which attract dominant males to help. A similar phenomenon occurs in elephants, bighorn sheep, and fallow deer, where the females stay close to dominant males for protection.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Females can also form alliances with other females for protection against aggressive males. Researchers have observed such alliances in many other female-bonded species, including other Old World monkeys such as macaques, olive baboons, patas and rhesus monkeys, and gray langurs; New World monkeys such as the capuchin; and prosimians such as the ring-tailed lemur. In African vervet monkeys, related females often form groups and “gang up” on males. Females of high rank create networks of female alliances; together, they fight away persistent suitors.


title: Sexual coercion among animals

text: Resisting males and fighting back are important tactics some species use to counter male coercion. Many females try to vigorously shake off males to dislodge them and flee; this is seen in female sepsid flies and diving beetles. Sepsids also try to bend their abdomen in such a way that males cannot copulate forcefully. Females are especially likely to fight back when they are protecting their offspring. This is seen in mountain gorillas, red howlers, and grey langur females, where males are often infanticidal.