#House Clearance in Sheffield

[ravenhillremovalsunitedkingdom]

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[clearanceservicesuk]

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[usafphantom2]

HOW MUCH DID SATELLITES COST

My Dad, Butch Sheffield, was with the SR 71 program from cradle ( Hired in 1964-Skunk Works winning Collier Award 1999) to grave and wrote down in his unpublish book some of his reasons why it was canceled prematurely.

During the Carter Administration, 1977-81, while Stansfield Turner was Director of the CIA, the two of them decided to rely upon National Technical Means (NTM) or Spy Satellites for intelligence. This included eliminating manned aircraft and spies on the ground. This has been proven to be one of the biggest intelligence mistakes ever. The reason for this strategy was it was risk-free for the political Administration. No airplanes or spies could be captured and displayed like Francis Powers and the U-2.

This made the politician feel comfortable.

NSA National Security Agency never liked the SR-71.

All the time I was Recce. Chief, they (the NSA) came to the Pentagon in groups to try to insult the SR 71 program in any way, they could. You would attend a meeting, and one or two people would attend from each service and DOD. NSA would show up with ten people. I would ask why. They would say that each one represents an area of NSA. It was a joke in the Pentagon.

I would only let one at a time in my area.

They would tell the White House in a flash-type message that an SR was almost intercepted by a Foxbat when the Foxbat was three hundred miles away from the SR. The cost of this, National Tactical Means (NTM) has never been made public; in fact, most people with security clearances inside the government don’t know the cost. I knew because I got a copy, one of twelve printed each year by the NRO, telling the real cost of the satellite, the launch cost, the communications cost, and the ground station cost.

The cost was enormous.

The NRO did not want to give me the book. I knew it existed and asked for it. Finally, they gave it to me after I pressured the Director when I worked for the U S Congress.

One might ask how did this affect the SR-71? The answer is that once this very large amount of money was being spent on satellites, they no longer wanted to fund the SR and then went from a National collection platform to a tactical intelligence asset. Now you know the true story.

Col Richard “ Butch” Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[severus-snaps]

This website has a gallery of photos of life in city slums in the late 1960s early 1970s (coincidentally, probably around the time Lily and Snape met) for several cities including Bradford, Manchester, Sheffield, Manchester, etc. It's really worth a look when considering Spinner's End.

The images and captions cover life and conditions living in the slums, in condemned housing, demolished areas, sanitation and health issues, etc. I've put some that stood out to me below (all captions from the photographer unless I've added Thoughts in brackets):

Letter regarding health and slum property, Birmingham 1971 [under the cut bc it got long]

An uncaptioned photo from Bradford; "Overflowing drains Winson Green 1971", Birmingham

Mrs Milne putting her children to bed Balsall Heath 1968 (note: no mattress, coat as a blanket)

Mother and baby, slum property Sparkbrook, 1971, Birmingham

Returning from work across clearance site Liverpool 8 1969

Medical certificate for rehousing, 1971, Liverpool

Left behind after slum clearance, Ladywood 1969; Family in slum property Saltley, 1969, Birmingham

Child skipping in a street of back to back houses, Leeds 1970

[Incidentally, the Wiki page for Back-to-back housing (including two-up two-down) gives you an idea of precisely how unsafe and unsatisfactory this type of housing was considered, since most houses only had the front-facing wall 'open'; not sure whether this was the type Snape had or if it had an alleyway behind?)]

Leeds back to backs 1970 (also, Bile Beans sound deeply unpleasant)

Vs Terraced house backs Salford 1970

Salford back to back and terraced housing 1971

And I'll stop after this one, because there's loads more:

Child at end of alleyway, Manchester 1972

And not only is all of this worth remembering in the context of real-life history, but it's interesting in the context of the story, because some readers (myself very much included) would struggle to even picture it.

It wasn't just a small, cramped house; it was potentially dangerous and unsanitary to live there. We see Snape gets mocked for his hygiene; many of the images/captions on the website discuss how these houses went without running water, or gas, or had faulty electricity, in addition to having outhouses instead of bathrooms. Some went without proper bedding, with animal and insect infestations, with dirty water. I imagine jobs would've been fast disappearing, the houses in various states of disrepair.

And returning to the comment above about going from living somewhere akin to the images here, to sharing a House/common room/dorm with the likes of the Malfoys - the same Malfoys who consider the Weasleys poor and destitute and mock and scorn them for it - and the Blacks (e.g. Bella considers Harry, with two magical parents, a 'filthy half blood' - so what might a Black/Lestrange think of a boy with a fully Muggle parent)... it doesn't even bear thinking about.

Two up, two down

We talk about Potter as a timeless series, as quills and parchment will never date, but there are a few key elements which are of their time, and I sometimes suspect that eventually, their original meaning may be lost.

Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is one of these.  If you visit Surrey, a house akin to Number 4 on Privet Drive can be found on hundreds of identical estates.  Indeed, the three-bedroom house with a garage, and both front and back gardens, situated on a private housing estate in leafy surburbia is one that most British people will have strolled through at some point.

But Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is the opposite of the Dursleys’ aspirational abode, and is somewhere that few modern readers will have seen in its original form with their own eyes.  Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is a traditional two up, two down through terraced house, mired deep in a maze of identical cobbled streets, overlooked by a looming mill chimney, and seemingly – by the 90s – entirely abandoned.

The difficulty that some may have in accurately picturing this scene is because these houses, in this state, no longer exist.  A large percentage of two up, two down terraces were demolished as part of slum clearance, which should tell you all that you need to know about the state of the houses.  

Those which remained have been extensively modified – usually knocking down the privy (outside toilet), and then building a two storey extension across the bulk of the yard to create a third room downstairs, and a bathroom upstairs.  Some houses only have a single extension; it is rather common in some areas of the Midlands to have a bathroom that leads off the kitchen downstairs – because the bathroom was the missing room, and it was cheaper to build one storey than two.

Pottermore had an article earlier in the year which explained how the filmmakers originally wanted to film on location, but could not, because the houses simply did not exist in their traditional state.

The houses were typically constructed with two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs with a tiny backyard entry leading to the outhouse. Craig actually considered shooting on location, but even though the buildings were intact, they had been brought into the modern era, with up-to-date kitchens and plastic extensions, so the set was built at the studio.

Throughout the 20th century, cobbled streets were routinely replaced by various other road surfaces, namely tarmac and asphalt – and, of course, the scarcity of cobblestones now means that such streets are aesthetically desirable.  However, the cobblestones in Spinner’s End are not an indication of affluence, but an indication of an area left behind. This is further illustrated by the rusted railings, the broken streetlights, and the boarded up windows.

These were workers houses, often funded by the owners of the mill, and therefore tied – meaning that rent was deducted from your wage before you received it.  There were benefits to being in tied accommodation, including being close to work and having a guaranteed landlord – but that was as much benefit to the mill owner as the worker.  Seeing great competition, some mill owners invested in their properties to entice workers – but Spinner’s End is not an example of this; Spinner’s End would’ve been regarded as little better than a slum even when fully occupied.

The narrow streets are indicative of when these houses were built, presumably in the late 1800s – cars were not a concern, and the attitude was to build as many houses on as small a piece of land as possible.

By the time the 90s roll around, and we see Narcissa and Bellatrix descend upon the street, Spinner’s End appears to be mostly deserted.  With the closure of traditional manual industries, families would be keen to relocate to where work could be found.  Estates which hadn’t already been cleared by the 60s would find themselves left to rack and ruin, their former occupants long gone – whether seeking a new life elsewhere, or having died.

For once, Bellatrix is not being anti-Muggle when she sneers at the Muggle dunghill; she is unnervingly accurate. It is a slum by her standards, but most importantly, it was a slum by everyone else’s standards as well.  By the time Severus was born, work should’ve been well under way to clear the area, or to renovate it.  This evidently did not occur – which itself explains how undesirable the area is; nobody wanted to spruce it up - they wanted to leave.  There were no jobs, no amenities, no services – and eventually, no people.

We often ponder why Snape remains at Spinner’s End, but perhaps there lies the answer; he wasn’t just hiding from the magical world, but he was also hiding from the Muggle world as well…

[speedyposts]

Biden sweeps South Carolina Democratic primary with ‘loser’ taunt at Trump

United States President Joe Biden has comfortably won South Carolina’s Democratic primary, promising afterwards that he would make Republican rival Donald Trump a loser for a second time in November’s election.

Biden on Saturday defeated the other long-shot Democrats on South Carolina’s ballot, including Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson, notching an overwhelming victory in the state that vaulted him to the White House in 2020.

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Kicking off his march to the party’s nomination, Biden secured a massive 96.4 percent of the votes in the first Democratic primary of the 2024 presidential race, US media reports said.

Democrats will now pore over the results to see how well the 81-year-old incumbent, battling low approval ratings, mobilised the Black voters who helped propel him to the White House against Trump, 77, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in the election.

As the results came in, Biden was at a campaign event in California, as he turned his attention to the next steps in his fight for re-election.

“Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the presidency again – and making Donald Trump a loser – again,” Biden said in a statement.

He urged people to get out and vote in November, saying the stakes “could not be higher” if Trump manages a sensational comeback to the Oval Office.

“There are extreme and dangerous voices at work in the country – led by Donald Trump,” he said.

Four years ago, it was South Carolina’s Black vote in the state’s primary that helped ignite Biden’s campaign and ultimately propel him to the White House.

Besides campaign fears that South Carolina’s heavily Black electorate might not be energised this time around, there were also doubts about his age and concerns about high consumer prices and security along the US-Mexican border.

South Carolina has not backed a Democrat for president in the general election since 1976. But because Black people make up the state’s more than half of the Democratic electorate, it presented an important test of Biden’s appeal with a voting base that typically supports Democrats nine-to-one in presidential races.

Carrie Sheffield, senior policy analyst at the advocacy group Independent Women’s Voice, said Biden’s victory in South Carolina does not guarantee him a lead in the presidential race.

“The reality is that this is just a primary and he is the incumbent president, so nobody ever thought he was actually going to lose. But the reality is that President Biden is the least popular president since World War II – that is truly shocking,” she told Al Jazeera.

“His approval ratings are only 33 percent. He is also losing in key battleground states that he won in 2020 against Donald Trump so he is losing overall across the seven battleground states by six points to Trump, and in North Carolina, it’s in double digits. No matter who wins the GOP primary, whether Donald Trump or Nikki Haley, both are beating Biden in the 2024 general election.”

Some South Carolina voters were also lukewarm about Biden’s re-election bid.

“Sometimes I wonder, is his presence enough because you don’t see him a lot, you don’t hear him a lot,” Martin Orr, a school administrator from McConnells, South Carolina, told The Associated Press news agency.

“Is it quiet because of his age or his physical condition, or what’s going on? I think that’s what a lot of people are concerned about right now,” Orr added.

Another issue that is dominating Biden’s re-election campaign is the domestic concerns over the war in Gaza.

For nearly four months now, Israel has been waging a “genocidal” campaign in Gaza, killing more than 27,200 people, displacing almost its entire population and triggering a widespread hunger and health crisis in the besieged enclave.

Israel’s latest campaign against Gaza started after Hamas fighters on October 7 stormed communities in southern Israel, killing more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 captives, nearly half of whom have since been released.

Michael Fauntroy, head of the Ronald Walters Leadership and Public Policy Center at Howard University, said Biden is walking “a fine line” as he tries to win Jewish votes while also trying to mediate for an end to the fighting inside Gaza.

“He seems to have been working very hard to get the Israelis to slow down and he has not publicly called for a ceasefire, but I think he understands that that is where the US policy will have to go,” Fauntroy told Al Jazeera.

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[renatedagmarmilada]

firth Park Sheffield...

Nigerian 22 year old woman- From Tideswell Rd Sheffield /?/who has dyed ochre hair, watched as she broke into Fekete home yesterday looting,.as well as books and papers. Lab st barths human Research paid her £20 for it, the Iranian who asked her to go, no worries she goes to Church St Marie's in Sheffield town those mornings, lab gave him the money. Natali brought one of her dozen or so regular sex persons, a young male from the tribal areas through Pakistan- /Afgh, have to apply for stay/ - who has not applied for stay- /we are allowed to come here !! and break into private citizens homes?/ around 18ish Longley College 'student' who keeps failing tests, to help Nigerian thief women, to rob Took three teaching maths books I buy these, they cost me my small pension--- / those are toasts in her box - pensioners do not throw food out etc- my wages teaching in China was 70 Yuan a month and we paid for electricity and rates for my house here so hardly rich.. ./ rampaged through my bedroom too. they rob her most personal stuff too, toothbrushes, four nail scissors now, ordinary scissors, soaps, perfumes, you name it as they take her paints, pencils, pens etc.. the young College lot seem to be the worst, they steal it for their black prostitutes to pay for their services.. I will be so pleased when they move Longley College away from here..

quote -That was the Second time she has been seen breaking into Fekete home---- Legal-- No. Calls herself Nataly odd african name, prosy , he asked her to go and fetch work of mine..Go fetch it. Pakistani friends had asked him to. Nigerian illegal answered - well I have nothing better to do //summer time courses for writing, maths etc??/

quote- Iranian:-- did Fekete have any work? asked tall JULIA MANKOVITZ who had asked them to find some as she is going to NEW YORK to her cousins in a short timeShe took books, pens I draw with. took half the biscuits for my Writers' group tea break-- Tideswell Nigerian female said: I have nothing better to do than break into the old teacher's homes..the crime was created by Sarah Cohen...

Two young pakistani FIrth Park Sheffield, women- ONE OF THEIR DAUGHTERS HAS USED YOUR PUPILS WORK BOOK THROUGH OUT HER SCHOOL TIME--these unqualified pakistani young women now give ''tuition'' and charge top prices- All Sheffield is watched as 76% career thieves, they shout a lot, as they do not know their stuff-said one of them: I didn't know I was so stupid till I began teaching FEKETE'S WORK --what, 12 yr olds difficult? /those kids do not need shouting at.I would not have taught them if they did./

Degrees? none? one had a 'course'--/?

quote-we take your former pupils' books and teach, often relatives of ours, from them.. Then over sound thrower on coordinates: Get out, this is our area. You were POW's /who was??/ The british gov brought us over after strong security clearance to work after the war, before even the Pakistanis came..

Someone called Conrad in a small truck was asked to wave to me, I don't know anyone named Conrad?? to compensate for this week's thefts..

Nafeesa of lab st barths Human Research and friend put gut press- SOUND OVER:--we know the area, no toilets open on Thursday afternoons.

I actually bent over backward to help these people!!! can you believe it..

ETHNICS ARE ODD-- THEY DESTROY THOSE WHO HAVE TRIED FOR THIRTY YEARS TO HELP THEM DO WELL--CHARGED AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE--HOW ODD..

. THEIR PARENTS WERE NICE PEOPLE BUT THEY ARE NO LONGER NICE- PRETTY GROTESQUE.. BUT WHEN I WORKED IN PAKISTAN, THE EDUCATED WERE FINE too BUT THE REST--- WELL IT IS ALL RUBBISH ABOUT THEIR HOSPITALITY--UTTER ABSOLUTE RUBBISH. I'D SAY LET THE CHINESE HAVE THEM..

[somusinha]

Office Clearances Service in Sheffield

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[suzane-george]

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[irishseeeker]

Having a crush on your boss is embarrassing. Inappropriate. Wrong. Especially when your boss is Anthony Bridgerton, the most insufferable man on the planet whom you actively despise.

What does Kate have to say on the matter?

...No comment.

~

Kate doesn’t know how it started.

Kate Sheffield did not like her boss. She actively despised her boss, Anthony Bridgerton, and he despised her. It was like a hobby. Her hatred for him was like a pet, like Newton, her gorgeous corgi, that she tended to and nurtured by making Bridgerton’s life as difficult as possible.

Except, something had changed.

She still despised him, she hadn’t gone completely insane-expect, that loathing went from pure loathing to...loathing with a side of oh, Anthony Bridgerton looks good in that suit today.

She now noticed things like when he got a haircut. His chestnut hair had been cut sharp, there was still a bit of height on the top but it was shaven quite tight around his ears.

He looked good.

Really good.

She wasn’t a teenager anymore. She was an adult. A 29 year old adult with a degree. A nice apartment. She even had house plants she managed to keep alive.

She shouldn’t have crushes like this.

Especially on him.

She didn't. Nope. She couldn't. Kate Sheffield did not have a crush on Anthony Bridgerton.

It wasn't possible.

He was just on her mind a lot, she tended to stare at him quite a bit and she may have a new routine of stalking his social media on a daily basis.

So, to conclude, she definitely did not have a crush on Anthony Bridgerton.

It was probably some type of illness. She could have an underlying cold coming on that deluded her into thinking Anthony Bridgerton was good looking and looked really good in expensive suits and his gym gear when it came into the office late every Wednesday after a personal training session in the morning.

Oh God.

It had gotten to the point where it was affecting her work.

Like right now.

She should be working on her mountain of paperwork sitting on her desk, but instead, she was watching Bridgerton stretch through his office glass windows. His office was parallel to hers on the top floor of Bridgerton & Family group building. It was the headquarters of the decades old Bridgerton & Family hotel group. Kate was the head of finance for their United Kingdom group, specifically dealing with approving budgets and projects. She had qualified as an accountant when she was 24 and had moved up from there.

She could see his white shirt, which probably cost more than her rent and was never wrinkled, slowly rise above his waist as he stretched his arms. She could see the outline of his pelvis, and the tanned skin he must have got from his recent work trip to Barbados. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, which showed off his forearms quite nicely. When did he get muscular?

The phone rang, making her jump and resulting in her reusable coffee cup spilling all down her white blouse.

“Shit!”

“All okay?” Sophie, her assistant, popped her head in.

“Just a coffee spill, thanks Sophie.” Kate said, sighing as she grabbed her blazer and buttoned it up, which covered the brown stain on her chest.

“I just sent you the proposal from Anthony!” Sophie called through the door. Sophie Beckett had been Kate’s incredible assistant for a year now. She was a few years younger than Kate, and she was working to put herself through university. Kate dreaded the day she lost her, but also signed her up for company funded courses as Sophie would go far in life and Kate couldn’t wait to see what she achieved.

“Cheers!” Kate shouted back, sitting down at her desk and opening up her email. Her eyes scanned the email and the proposal, and her stomach dropped as her chest filled with fury.

“That motherfucker,” Kate spat, shoving herself away from her desk as she stormed towards Anthony Bridgerton’s office, ready to commit murder.

Gregory, his assistant and younger brother, wasn’t at his desk. She had checked Bridgerton’s work calendar and it was clear, so he wasn’t with a client. She didn’t bother knocking.

That was her first mistake.

“Bridgerton, I don’t know if you were dropped on your head as a child-“

Her voice caught in her throat. His office was occupied by two other men, who had heard every single word she had just said.

That was her second mistake.

“Oh! I am so sorry," Her cheeks flushed with red mortification and she wanted the ground to swallow her whole. "I can come back-”

Anthony sat behind his desk, smugly beaming at her as she flushed in embarrassment. “Ah, Kate. Charming as always. I was waiting for you to storm in and annoy me today. Have you met my brothers? This is Benedict and Colin,” He gestured to the two men sitting in front of him.

“The famous Kate Sheffield,” Benedict extended his hand, grinning at her as he stood up. “It is an honour to meet you.”

“We’ve heard so many great things,” Kate raised an confused eyebrow at Colin as he stood up and spoke, shaking his hand as well. “From Gregory. We’re big fans of your daily torment of our dear older brother.”

“He definitely was dropped, by the way,” said Colin, grinning cheekily at Anthony who scowled at him. “Mother would never admit to it, but it would explain a lot.”

Kate laughed at him as Anthony scowled. “The chances of you getting the travel money you wanted are looking incredibly low, dearest brother,” said Anthony, narrowing his eyes at his Colin. “What did you want, Sheffield? I’m busy.”

There was a knock at the door just as Kate opened her mouth to retort, and Sophie popped her head in the doorway. “Excuse me for interrupting,” She said, looking at Kate. “Kate, there’s an important phone call waiting for you. Hi Anthony.”

"Hey, Sophie," said Anthony, pleasantly smiling at her which made Kate glare at him in disgust. Sophie and Bridgerton liked each other. Sophie had said on more than one occasion that he wasn't as bad as Kate made him out to be, and Kate usually threw a pen at her.

“Thank you, Sophie,” She smiled at her assistant, before turning around back to Bridgerton and putting the proposal on his desk with the word ‘DENIED’ scribbled across it in red sharpie. “I don’t want to see this proposal on my desk again. I don't feel like denying it for a fourth time.”

Benedict had turned around and was staring at Sophie, and Anthony rolled his eyes. This was one of their new arguments, that had been going on for a few weeks over a hotel design proposal that Anthony desperately wanted and Kate wouldn’t approve under any circumstances.

“Your wants aren’t really my concern, Sheffield,” Anthony said, his tone dismissive. “It’s an excellent proposal-”

Kate snorted. “It’s an obnoxious, reckless, extremely over the top hotel proposal that is not going to happen just to boost your ego. The Board would never agree to it and I certainly won’t.”

“We’ll see about that,” He smirked at her, but his eyes were glaring at her. “The Board are very fond of me. I can be very persuasive.”

“You need finance clearance and-oh. Who in finance has that authority?” She tilted her head slightly, before looking back at him to smirk right back at his smug face. “That’s right, me.”

“Who is CEO of the company and whose name is on the company?” Anthony retorted, furrowing his brows before smirking at her. “That’s right,” He mimicked her, “Me.”

“Does this happen often?” Benedict asked, amused as his head flicked between Kate and Anthony.

Gregory Bridgerton, who was eating a packet of crisps, appeared at the doorway and joined the conversation. “Everyday.”

“Every single day,” Sophie added in agreement, smirking slightly which faded as her cheeks turned crimson when she caught Benedict’s eye, quickly looking away.

“No it does not!” Both Kate and Anthony said at the same time.

Kate shook her head in frustration, “I have to go. If you email me that proposal again, I will stamp it once again with DENIED and hammer it onto your door until the message gets through your thick skull.”

“I am your boss, Sheffield,” said Anthony, his tone rather sharp. “You can’t talk to me like that.”

“Oh, forgive me,” Kate said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Should I write it down so you will actually understand what I’m saying?”

Anthony glared at her furiously, pushing himself up with his fists. “You can shove it up your-”

“So lovely to meet you both,” said Kate, interrupting Anthony’s insult loudly as she smiled at his laughing two brothers before walking out of the room, Sophie at her heels.

It was no way to talk to her boss, he was right, but they had long passed the proper etiquette of employer and employee relationships. They regularly insulted and shouted at each other, whether it was in person, over text or on the phone, and it just sort of became what they did. It somehow worked, as they worked well together and the company was making its highest profits to date.

Kate sat at her desk, her heart thumping in her chest. What was she thinking? She did not like that man. He infuriated her. She grabbed her jacket on the back of her chair and quietly screamed into it, then took a deep breath before answering the phone. “Edwina? Is everything okay? Is it Mary? Is it Newton?”

“Relax, Kate,” Her sister said, with amusement in her voice. “I had to say it was an emergency for you to answer during work. It is technically an emergency.”

“Not funny,” Kate mumbled, resting her cheek against her desk and putting the phone on speaker. “What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

Kate heard her sister swallow before biting the bullet. “I need you to come to this charity gala tonight.”

“No.”

“Kate-”

“No!”

“My date just bailed on me for Paris fashion week. I can’t go alone. It would be so embarrassing. He’s already been photographed with some Russian model this morning,” Her sister’s voice broke slightly. “Please, Katie.”

Edwina was her younger sister by four years, and she was a famous supermodel. She had been scouted when they were walking down Oxford Street, and it had been runways, magazines and brand deals for Edwina ever since. Kate would do anything for her sister, especially when she pleaded with her, even if that thing made Kate want to set herself on fire.

Actually, she probably would prefer having a civilized conversation with Anthony Bridgerton than go to one of Edwina’s events. That’s how much Kate hated them.

She groaned. “Fine, but two hours top. I will choose what I wear and if you try to set me up, I will leave.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! “ Her sister squealed to the phone. “Be at mine at six! Do not be late! I love you.”

“I love you too, but I want you to know at this very moment, I really despise you,” Kate said as she heard her sister chuckle before hanging up. Excellent. She hated Edwina’s events. She had been to many of Edwina’s parties, galas and events, which involved Kate trailing behind her famous sister who everyone cooed and praised and only ever acknowledged Kate with a “Oh! I didn’t know you had a sister!” after Edwina introduced her.

As if her day couldn’t get any worse.

She heard a buzz, and then Sophie’s voice over the intercom. “Can I get you anything?”

Kate groaned. “The will to live.”

“How about a milkshake?”

She lifted her head off her desk slightly, perking up. “Please. Chocolate with extra crème. I’m feeling fragile.”

“Of course, I’ll go right away,” Sophie spoke, hesitating slightly before continuing. “Anthony has just sent an invite for the hotel proposal presentation with the Board in a few weeks. Talktoyoulaterbye!”

Kate’s head snapped up off her desk, “What?” She spat out, fury filling her veins and she twisted her neck towards his office. He was looking right at her, smirking like the devil himself, and he had the audacity to wave.

Kate’s middle finger waved right back.

a/n: chapter 2 coming soon!

[blackkudos]

Thelma Houston

Thelma Houston (née Jackson; born May 7, 1946) is an American singer and actress. She scored a number-one hit in 1977 with her recording of "Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

Early life and career

Houston was born in Leland, Mississippi. Her mother was a cotton picker. She and her three sisters grew up primarily in Long Beach, California. After marrying and having two children, she joined the Art Reynolds Singers gospel group and was subsequently signed as a recording artist with Dunhill Records. She isn't related to the late Whitney Houston.

In 1969, Houston released her debut album, entitled Sunshower, produced, arranged and composed by Jimmy Webb except for one track. In 1971 she signed with Motown Records but her early recordings with them were largely unsuccessful. Her most notable single during that period was "You've Been Doing Wrong for So Long" which peaked at No. 64 on the US Billboard R&B chart in 1974. However Houston's vocal prowess on that track secured her a nomination for a Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. In 1973 Motown Productions announced a projected biographical film of Dinah Washington which would star Houston; however the project was dropped due to difficulties in getting clearance from Washington's relatives. In April 1974 Houston joined the cast of The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, playing various characters during the show's skits. The show was canceled in August and for the next several years her work was limited to demo recordings and performing at small venues.

Houston took acting classes and received her first role in the 1975 made-for-television film Death Scream. In that same year Sheffield Lab released "I've Got the Music in Me" a Direct to disc recording by Thelma Houston and Pressure Cooker that went on to become a benchmark vinyl recording for audiophiles. The following year she recorded songs for the soundtrack of the film The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings starring Billy Dee Williams and James Earl Jones. In 1975 Houston appeared on the Golden Globe Award broadcast performing the nominated song "On & On" and also was featured in a tribute to Berry Gordy on that year's American Music Award broadcast singing "You've Made Me So Very Happy". That year Houston's version of "Do You Know Where You're Going To" was being set for single release when it was pulled and the song given to Diana Ross to serve as the theme song for the movie Mahogany. In 1976 Houston sang backing vocals for Motown labelmate Jermaine Jackson on his album My Name Is Jermaine.

"Don't Leave Me This Way" and Departure from Motown

Houston released her third solo album Any Way You Like It in 1976. The first single released was her version of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' 1975 song "Don't Leave Me This Way". In February 1977 the track hit Number 1 in the U.S. on the R&B and Club Play Singles charts, then in April 1977 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Don't Leave Me This Way" won Houston the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the Grammys for 1977. Besides its US success "Don't Leave Me This Way" became a hit in at least twelve countries, including the UK where it reached Number 13 despite the concurrent single release of the Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes original, which reached Number 5. Also in 1977 Houston teamed up with Jerry Butler to record the album Thelma & Jerry and that November 1977 she co-starred in the film Game Show Models. It was announced in February 1977 that Houston would star as Bessie Smith in a filmation of the play Me and Bessie, to be produced by Motown; after an announcement that December that Houston was set to portray Bessie Smith in a biopic to be produced in 1978 by Columbia Pictures nothing more was heard of the project.

The second single from Any Way You Like It was Houston's rendition of "If It's the Last Thing I Do", a standard written by Saul Chaplin and Sammy Cahn; the track had been recorded and prepped for single release in 1973 but canceled. The impact of "If It's the Last Thing I Do" was far less than that of "Don't Leave Me This Way", as the former fell short of both the R&B Top Ten and the Pop Top 40. With the lead single from her 1978 album The Devil in Me: "I'm Here Again", Houston returned to the style of "Don't Leave Me This Way" without recapturing the earlier single's success. Houston did enjoy considerable commercial success in 1978 via the inclusion of her track "Love Masterpiece" on the Thank God It's Friday soundtrack album which sold double platinum but her own album release that year Ready to Roll again failing to consolidate the stardom augured by "Don't Leave Me This Way". The album's second single: "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning", gradually accrued airplay entering the national charts in March 1979 and ascending as high as #34 (#19 R&B) that June. "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning" was issued on a new album by Houston: Ride to the Rainbow but the track's relative success was not enough to forestall Houston's planned departure from Motown.

1980s

Houston continued recording music into the 1980s, beginning with the RCA release Breakwater Cat which reunited her with Jimmy Webb who produced her debut single Sunshower and which like their earlier collaboration was a commercially overlooked critical success. During the December 22, 1984 Billboard magazine interview, Houston admitted to "'no real commercial success' since the single 'Don't Leave Me This Way' broke on the Pop charts in late 1976" indicating that the disco backlash had left her with "no real base of audience support" and that her current album Qualifying Heat, executive produced by Houston herself, was a concentrated initiative to restore her as a viable chart presence; the album featured three cuts from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis – including the single "You Used to Hold Me So Tight" – and production work from Glen Ballard, Dennis Lambert, Cliff Magness and – in his first known recording work – Lenny Kravitz (then billed as Romeo Blue), who each produced a cut apiece. "You Use to Hold Me So Tight" became Houston's most successful post-1970s release with a No. 13 R&B peak, but its parent album was a comparative failure – charting No. 41 R&B – and Houston would not cut another album for six years.

The constant ranking of her 1980s releases as moderate or minor R&B hits led Houston to concentrate on alternate exposure. After appearing in the independent film The Seventh Dwarf in 1979 Houston made guest-starring appearances into the mid-1980s in several popular television programs including Cagney & Lacey, Simon & Simon – a January 1986 appearance that featured her performing "You Used to Hold Me So Tight" – and Faerie Tale Theatre. Houston also appeared in the 1987 CBS after school special Little Miss Perfect (1987) – as "Prison Singer" – in the 1988 film And God Created Woman.

On the May 19, 1985 NBC broadcast Motown Returns to the Apollo Houston performed "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" in the guise of Dinah Washington. Houston continued to contribute to movie soundtracks, recording "Keep It Light" for the 1985 film Into the Night and she remade Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" for the 1989 film entitled Lean on Me. Houston also co-wrote and sang back-up on the song "Be Yourself" for Patti LaBelle's 1989 album of the same title.

1990s

The Fall of 1990 saw the release of Houston's first album in six years, Throw You Down, a long-planned collaboration with producer Richard Perry which briefly extended Houston's career as a minor R&B chart presence. The title song reached No. 5 on the U.S. dance chart. A remix of "Don't Leave Me This Way" was released, and once again charted on the Hot Dance Club Play chart at No. 19 in 1995. Subsequent singles include "I Need Somebody Tonight" and "All of That".

In 1994, Houston participated in an AIDS benefit at New York's Algonquin Hotel, performing gospel music with Phoebe Snow, Chaka Khan and CeCe Peniston as "Sisters of Glory". Intended as a one-off performance troupe, the Sisters of Glory remained together – with the addition of Mavis Staples and Lois Walden, and without Chaka Khan – to perform at Woodstock '94. Houston performed with the Sisters of Glory for the Pope in Vatican City and in 1995 Houston, Phoebe Snow, CeCe Peniston, Lois Walden and Albertina Walker recorded the Warner Brothers album Good News in Hard Times as the Sisters of Glory.

Houston provided lead vocals on several tracks of guitarist Scott Henderson's 1997 Atlantic album, Tore Down House, and in 1998 she made cameo appearances in two films: in 54 Houston portrayed herself singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" supposedly at Studio 54, and in Beloved Houston played 'One of The Thirty Women'.

Recent career

In 2000, Houston toured successfully throughout Australia in the stage musical version of Fame. In 2002 she again guested on a Scott Henderson album, providing lead vocals for two of the tracks on Well to the Bone. Upon returning to the U.S. Houston toured with Nile Rodgers and Chic, and was among the opening acts of the originally intended finale of Cher's Farewell Tour in Toronto on October 31, 2003. Houston regularly performs at Teatro ZinZanni in Seattle and San Francisco.

Her version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" continues to be popular today. In recent years she has been invited to sing this song on dozens of TV shows and specials including NBC's Today Show, ABC's Motown 45 and The Disco Ball...A 30-Year Celebration, and PBS' specials American Soundtrack: Rhythm, Love and Soul, Soul Superstars, and Old School Superstars. "Don't Leave Me This Way" was mentioned by VH1 as being among the greatest dance songs in 2000, and was ranked number eighty-six on the channel's countdown of The 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders. She won an episode of the NBC show Hit Me, Baby, One More Time with her renditions of her own hit and "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys. On September 20, 2004, Houston's rendition of "Don't Leave Me This Way" was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in New York City.

On August 14, 2007, Houston released her first studio album in seventeen years, A Woman's Touch. The album was produced by Peitor Angell and features cover versions of songs by male artists such as Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, and Sting that Houston had been inspired by. The first single from the album was "Brand New Day". On August 20, 2007, Houston's 1984 album Qualifying Heat was reissued as an import title in the U.S. with a bonus track.

She sang "Don't Leave Me This Way" on American Idol on April 22, 2009, and on America's Got Talent on September 16, 2009.

On July 29, 2013, a collaboration between Thelma and Los Angeles-based producer Janitor, entitled "Enemy", premiered on SoundCloud. Several tracks followed, culminating in the release of an EP, "Forty-Two", in September. This is the first new material from Thelma Houston in six years.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Thelma Houston among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

She is featured on British singer songwriter Morrissey's new single "Bobby Don't you Think They Know", released on streaming platforms on 10th January 2020 from his album I Am Not a Dog on a Chain.

Discography

Albums

Dunhill release

1969: Sunshower No. 50 R&B

MoWest release

1973: Thelma Houston

Sheffield Lab release

1975: I've Got the Music in Me – with Pressure Cooker

Tamla (Motown) releases

1976: Any Way You Like It Pop No. 11, R&B No. 5

1977: The Devil in Me Pop No. 64, R&B No. 29

1978: Ready to Roll R&B No. 74

1979: Ride to the Rainbow Pop No. 204

Motown releases

1977: Thelma & Jerry – Thelma Houston and Jerry Butler Pop No. 53, R&B No. 20

1978: Two to One – Thelma Houston and Jerry Butler

1982: Reachin' All Around

RCA releases

1980: Breakwater Cat Pop No. 201

1981: Never Gonna Be Another One Pop No. 144, R&B No. 51

MCA releases

1983: Thelma Houston (1983)

1984: Qualifying Heat R&B No. 30

Reprise release

1990: Throw You Down

Italian-only release (Fonit Cetra CDL378)

1994: Thelma Houston (1994)

Shout Factory release

2007: A Woman's Touch

Other

2010: Divas of Disco: Live (with CeCe Peniston, Linda Clifford, A Taste of Honey and France Joli)

2013: Forty-Two (EP, with Janitor)

Singles

Filmography

Films

1975: Death Scream — Lady Wing Ding

1977: Game Show Models — Dana Sheridan

1979: The Seventh Dwarf

1988: And God Created Woman — prison singer

1998: 54 — herself

1998: Beloved — one of The Thirty Women

Television (guest)

1969: The Price of Fame – Guest singer, singing "Jumpin' Jack Flash"

1971: The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine — various characters

1975: The Golden Globe Award — Guest Singer

1980: The Two Ronnies - Guest singer, singing " The Candyman"

1985: Cagney & Lacey (5,11: Play it again, Santa) — Ellie Hendricks

1986: Simon & Simon — Venutia

1986: Tall Tales & Legends — Edna

1987: Little Miss Perfect — Ms. Bonner

Soundtracks

1976: The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings — "Steal on Home", "Razzle Dazzle"

1976: Norman... Is That You? — "One Out of Every Six"

1978: Thank God It's Friday — "Love Masterpiece"

1984: Getting Physical — "Hot Dance", "To Be Free"

1985: Into the Night — "Keep It Light"

1989: Lean on Me — "Lean on Me"

[xhxhxhx]

The Hopeless Labour Party

On the eve of the Great War, the Labour Party appeared to have failed. 

Britain had the largest industrial working class and the largest trade union movement in Europe. There were 647,000 unionized employees in Britain in 1887 and only 146,000 in Germany, and despite rapid trade union organizing in Germany, Britain still had more unionized employees than Germany on the eve of the Great War: 4,107,000 to 3,928,900. On the eve of the Great War, 22.6 percent of British workers were unionized, but only 11.4 percent of the Germans, 7.1 percent of the Swedes, and 1.9 percent of the Finns. 

But despite the successes of its industrial economy and the strengths of its trade union movement, Britain had one of Europe’s smallest social democratic parties. In Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the Czech lands of Austria-Hungary, social democrats won more than thirty percent of the vote in the 1910s. In Britain, they won less than ten. 

Why had the Labour Party failed to break through?

Britain had an accommodating attitude towards its unions. The United States had destroyed workers’ control and the national labor movement, but Britain had not. “There is no party which does not recognize to the full all that trade unions have done,” Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour declared. “[T]rade disputes in this country have been carried on with a wisdom and a moderation on both sides which cannot be paralleled in another industrial country.” Balfour was not wrong: Britain’s trade unionists were less militant than their European counterparts.

But there was perhaps a deeper problem: British workers appeared to be less attached to socialism than they were to liberalism.

“I must confess it seems hopeless to attempt to found a Labour party here,” the founder of the Social-Democratic Federation told Marx in 1881. “The men are so indifferent, so given over to beer, tobacco, and general laissez-faire.” There had been a moment of optimism in the 1890s. Ramsay MacDonald and Keir Hardie’s Programme of the Independent Labour Party (1899) was premised on the idea that the Liberal Party had “collapsed.” That collapse did not last long. In the Programme, MacDonald had repudiated any alliance with the Liberals. In 1903, he brought Labour into one.

As Britain went to war in 1914, Labour was small, a minority party in a coalition government, and it was not clear if that would ever change.

In the Edwardian era, the British working class voted for the Liberal Party. Nowhere else in Europe did the national working class fit comfortably within a liberal politics. This was partially because of the Liberals shared Labour’s class interests, but more often because Liberals represented their religious interests: Anglicans were Conservatives and nonconformists Liberals. 

The Anglicans were members of the Church of England, which had broken from the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century and remained the established Church of England. It was a Protestant Church, at least in name, but it asked little of its members that was particularly Protestant. It did not demand a commitment to Calvinism or to any other system of doctrinal Protestantism. It was as Catholic or as Protestant as its members made it.

The nonconformists had broken from the Established Church because its establishment had made it more Catholic than their consciences could tolerate. During the seventeenth century, the more Protestant members of what was a decreasingly Protestant Church faced an increasingly Catholic hierarchy and an increasingly Catholic Crown. The consequence was a Civil War, and ultimately a division between England’s Established Church and the nonconformists of the Free Churches: Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists.

British Liberals never converged on a utilitarian or natural-law understanding of the world, or on republican principles. What they shared was a certain understanding of English history. Their historical memory was shaped by the English Civil War. The Liberals remembered their martyrs, and made Cromwell and Milton their cult heroes. Their statesman John Bright called Cromwell “the greatest man who ever lived.” The nonconformists were inclined to agree.

In the 1906 election, 100 percent of Baptist parliamentary candidates were Liberal or Labour, as were 98 percent of Congregationalists and 83 percent of Presbyterians. Labour was a secular party, with few connections to religious institutions and little to say on religious issues. The Liberals were embedded in the chapels of western and northern England. They were, as a contemporary observer remarked, “highly sensitive to the appeals of the Nonconformist conscience.” A Sheffield prayer of 1910 read:

Take my vote and let it be 
 Consecrated Lord to thee. 
Guide my hand that I may trace
 Crosses in the proper place.

By contrast, the Conservatives were the party of the Church of England. At least 90 percent of Conservative MPs were Anglican. In 1902, the Conservative government passed a law funding denominational religious instruction in voluntary schools over deep nonconformist opposition. Catholics and Anglicans would enjoy private education, administered by their church, and subsidized by British ratepayers. The Conservatives lost the 1906 election in a landslide, and denomination instruction is one reason why. 

The Liberals submerged the differences between labor and capital beneath the old differences between Anglican and nonconformist, the countryside and the towns, and England and the British nations. British Liberalism had not converged on a common understanding of the world, but the Liberals understood who their friends were. 

Three ironies: First, Liberalism was still the politics of labor. In Edwardian England, Liberals and Labour were united. The Balfour government had upset the working class by challenging the Victorian order of free trade, free churches, and free collective bargaining. The Liberals stood with the workers, while Labour took the backseat.

Second, even as the differences made salient in British Liberalism became the differences sublimated in British Labour, the differences remained. In the England of Blair and Brown, Anglicans were Conservative, and nonconformists Labour. The nonconformist heartlands of Wales, Scotland, and outer England became Labour heartlands, and when Conservatism was reduced to its lowest ebb, the Conservatives held the most Anglican constituencies of the English countryside.

Third, the Liberals are remembered as friends of the working class because they expanded the welfare state, but that is not why the working class voted for them. In March 1906, the new Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, told the House of Commons that “The policy upon which the Government has taken office and upon which they have been supported by their friends is the policy of retrenchment.” If anything, the working class had voted for austerity.

The British working class disliked welfare until the moment they received it. They believed in independence and self-help, and party from a suspicion of the state. They hated the poor law, compulsory education, and local authority housing and clearance. They opposed compulsory vaccination. In 1909, 151,000 of the 185,000 voting members of the Cotton Operatives’ Amalgamation voted against raising the compulsory education age to thirteen. 

In 1902, the socialist and secularist F. J. Gould, a schoolteacher in London and then a member of the Leicester school board, met a mother who had her daughter home to help with the house. That would have to end, he thought: “The mother must yield; and the mother must suffer.” 

Nonetheless, Liberal and Labour MPs did support the welfare state. Labour backbenchers introduced measures for school meals and compulsory school medical inspection. The Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 was supported by the labor movement. The Liberal leadership believed that social welfare would be popular. They were not wrong, but that was not why the Liberals or Labour had been elected. “In so far as the Labour Party won seats at the 1906 election,” the historian Henry Pelling observed, “it did so by sharing [the Liberal] programme, which was almost an antithesis of the objects of Socialism.”

“It is time we did something that appealed straight to the people – it will, I think, help to stop the electoral rot, and that is most necessary,” David Lloyd George told his brother in May 1908, as he steered the pensions bill through the House. The Liberals built the British welfare state: introducing school meals and compulsory school medical inspection in 1906 and 1907, old age pensions and a progressive income tax in 1908, labor exchanges and trade boards for the sweated trades in 1909, and national health and unemployment insurance in 1911. If the Liberals’ welfare state ever helped to stop the electoral rot, however, it did not last.

After the Great War, the progressive alliance came apart. The war split the Liberals in two, but it also split the Free Churches, and weakened the ties of organized religion. Labour replaced the Liberals as the party of the working class, as class became the most salient difference in British politics. Labour embraced Fabian socialism and discarded liberalism. The Liberals went into the wilderness. 

Labour never became the party of government. The Conservatives held power for seventy of the hundred years after 1895. During that century, Labour held a significant majority for less than a decade, and less than that in fragile minority or coalition governments. The Labour Party did not win power on its own until July 1945. 

That was the moment when the labor movement began its long decline, and Labour began its slow transformation into something else.

This topic was suggested by a Patreon backer.

Colin Crouch, Industrial Relations and European State Traditions (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 73, 100; Martin Daunton, Wealth and Welfare: An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1851–1951 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 93, 101; Geoff Eley, Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe, 1850–2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 65, 66, 514 n. 24; Henry Pelling, “The Working Class and the Origins of the Welfare State,” in Popular Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain (London: Macmillan, 1979), 1–2, 4–5, 14, 17; Ross McKibbin, Parties and People: England, 1914–1951 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 5, 6, 23–24; Adrian Hastings, A History of English Christianity, 1920–1985 (London: Fount, 1987), 31–32; John F. Glaser, “English Nonconformity and the Decline of Liberalism,” American Historical Review 63:2 (Jan. 1958): 352–363; Kenneth D. Wald, Crosses on the Ballot: Patterns of British Voter Alignment since 1885 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), 3, 197; John Russell Vincent, The Formation of the British Liberal Party (New York: Scribner’s, 1966), xxix; K. D. M. Snell and Paul S. Ell, Rival Jerusalems: The Geography of Victorian Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 77, 171; Pat Thane, “The Working Class and State ‘Welfare’ in Britain, 1880–1914,” Historical Journal 27:4 (1984): 895–896; G. R. Searle, A New England? Peace and War, 1886–1918 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004), 371; Anthony Seldon and Stuart Ball, Conservative Century: The Conservative Party since 1900 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 1.

[clearanceservicesuk]

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[usafphantom2]

Blackbird pilot tells why the SR-71 could fly at Mach 3.55 so long as 427C weren’t exceeded

The Blackbird

The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” was a long-range, Mach 3+, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft.

T-shirts Habubrats 2

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

The first flight of an SR-71 took place on Dec. 22, 1964, and the first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., in January 1966.

The Blackbird was in a different category from anything that had come before. “Everything had to be invented. Everything,” Skunk Works legendary aircraft designer Kelly Johnson recalled in an interesting article appeared on Lockheed Martin website.

The SR-71 could fly at Mach 3.55

Today there are many rumors about just how fast the SR-71 could go. The J58 engine temperature limited the top speed. The speed limit for the airplane ironically had nothing to do with the airframe; it had to do with the engines. Right in front of the engine compressor was a temperature probe that reported the temperature to the pilot; when the temperature was around 427C, 800 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s as fast as they were allowed to go.

However, a cold blast from frigid weather could make a difference in reducing the temperature. This would enable the airframe to go faster without harming the engines.

David Peters, former SR-71 Blackbird pilot, explained to me;

Blackbird pilot tells why the SR-71 could fly at Mach 3.55 so long as 427C weren’t exceeded

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. Dawn at 80.000ft – SR-71 Blackbird

‘A little clarification on the speed thing. You are absolutely correct on the 427C. The issue is that I have been limited to less than Mach 3 on a few occasions because the outside air temperature was quite above standard and 427C came up at about 2.95. On other occasions like the Murmansk deal I got above 3.4 (3.49 on the one occasion) and wasn’t close to 427C. The actual limiting airspeed is around 3.55 that is where the spike being at full retraction loses the intercept on the shock wave and can no longer position it correctly in the inlet. ‘Also the overflow of the shock starts to go over the wing and interfere with the flight controls. So the limiting speed as configured would be about 3.55 so long as you don’t exceed 427C.’

Mike Relja, who worked on in with the SR-71‘s for over 30 years, added;

‘I don’t know of any warranty that P&W had or any other parts manufacturer for that matter.

Don’t exceed 427C

‘On the March 6th [Mar. 6, 1990] speed run Ed Yeilding stated that Don Emmons gave them permission to fly the max limit of 3.3 M, they asked Lockheed if they could exceed that number and Lockheed said no if the aircraft had an unstart above 3.3 it may go out of control and come apart hard to keep the pointy end forward. Also, no fuel flow limits established above 3.3 M were ever tested.

‘P&W did give them clearance to exceed 427 CIT for 30 minutes to a limit of 450 CIT but that wasn’t needed they stayed at the book limit of 427 CIT.’*

The engines maker Pratt & Whitney would not warrant or guarantee anything beyond 427; after that, all bets are off the engine could come unglued or you could shed turbine blades. The SR-71 crewmembers were too responsible to risk and exceeded the temperature limit. They wanted to keep the warranty on the engines, the J58’s.

*SR-71 pilot Ed Yeilding (who along with JT Vida as RSO flew the Blackbird during the speed run of Mar. 6, 1990) told me that another reason they didn’t exceed 3.2 is that they were afraid they’d run out of gas before they got to Dullas airport.

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter X Page Habubrats SR-71, Instagram Page SR71Habubrats and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Habubrats for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

Blackbird pilot tells why the SR-71 could fly at Mach 3.55 so long as 427C weren’t exceeded

@Habubrats71 via X

[contemporaryglassstaircase-blog]

Contemporary Glass Staircase Designs

Contemporary Glass Stair Sheffield

Considering An Attic Remodelling

Have you ever thought of transforming idle space into living room? A great deal of home owners have actually taken into consideration an attic restoration in order to boost the resale value of their house and also to make this area functional. You as well could do the same but the only means this could take place is using what you carry top of your existing home.

Yet can you do this in your home? The reality is, not all houses can undergo an attic room renovation. This is since not all attics have adequate headroom directly under the ridge line and also much less than 7 1/2 feet of clearance over at the very least fifty percent of the attic room flooring space.

Also, it is hard to have an attic improvement if the existing roof covering makes use of a "X" or "W" shaped frame. Nonetheless sometimes, a service provider may locate a way to work around this as lengthy as the roofing system is supported by cross dental braces.

Another thing you have to think of when you are considering an attic remodelling is the structural honesty of your floor covering. Bear in mind that the floor covering below likewise acts as the ceiling of an area listed below. Ought to the flooring joists be insufficient when you step on it, somebody could drop as well as obtain harmed.

Contemporary Glass Staircases Sheffield

This is why you need to examine the stamina and suitability of the attic room floor by calling a specialist to do the research study. If these two things have actually been fulfilled, you could currently prepare just what you want to finish with your attic room.

The majority of property owners who think about an attic renovation could transform this right into a bedroom or game room. This implies providing sufficient insulation, illumination as well as air flow to this room. You could give insulation by putting in extra layers to exactly what is currently existing there. For illumination, you can mount a skylight. As for ventilation, you can place a home window so air is able to enter and out.

Another thing that is related to flooring as well as component of attic room conversion is ease of access. If the only means here was through a trap door or a take down stairways, you will have to alter it because this is prohibited. This needs to be changed with staircases that is permanent measuring 2 feet by 6 feet that has hand rails on both sides. You can likewise have just one handrail as long as the opposite side is opposite the wall surface.

Contemporary Steel And Glass Staircases

If you have no idea ways to obtain this started, why do not you take a look at house renovation or interior design magazines? You could also obtain a specialist to assist you prepare it out due to the fact that in the long run, they could help take into attracting exactly what you want carried out in your head.

A few other ideas for those taking into consideration an attic room improvement include making this right into a health club, a residence movie theater room, an art gallery or an excellent space. If you have various other terrific concepts, go ahead and try them out so you can clear out this storage area.

If you are considering an attic remodelling, consider these 2 points. Initially, this project ought to not cost you a ton of money. This implies you do not need added structure to make sure that this could be used as living room. Secondly, if you have the ability to obtain a return on your investment in the long term, then employing someone to do the work is all worth it.

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