HAMBLEDON (n.)
The sound of a single-engined aircraft flying by, heard whilst lying in a summer field in England, which somehow concentrates the silence and sense of space and timelessness and leaves one with a profound feeling of something or other. — The Meaning of Liff, Douglas Adams and John Lloyd (1983)
Elsewhere Other-Accessible
• The Meaning of Liff — full text
• The Meaning of Liff — at Wikipedia
[In the plane] We hurried past the great bay at the northern end of Santo, down the eastern side of the island, well clear of its gaunt, still unexplored mountains. The morning sun was low when we passed the central part of Santo, and I can still recall the eerie effect of horizontal shadows upon the thickest jungle in the South Pacific. A hard, forbidding green mat hid every feature of the island, but from time to time solitary trees, burdened with parasites, thrust their tops high above the mat. It was these trees, catching the early sunlight, that made the island grotesque, crawling, and infinitely lonely. Planes had crashed into this green sea of Espiritu and had never been seen again. Ten minutes after the smoke cleared, a burnt plane was invisible. — James A. Michener evokes H.P. Lovecraft in the short-story “Wine for the Mess at Segi” from Tales of the South Pacific (1947)
Shock-diamonds in the exhaust of a Lockheed SR71 Blackbird at 85,000 ft (from MechStuff.com)
(click for larger)
Pilot-thrilling… 10 flyers’ favourites
1. Vickers VC10 — A pilot’s airliner that also beguiled its passengers
2. North American F-86 Sabre — The classic second-generation jet fighter
3. Hawker Hart — An elegant two-seat day bomber of the 1930s that delighted its pilots
4. de Havilland Hornet — The ultimate twin-piston fighter, evolved from the classic Mosquito
5. Sopwith Pup — A First World War fighter beloved by all who flew it
6. Armstrong Whitworth Siskin — Agile and manouverable radial-engined inter-war fighter
7. Stampe SV-4 — A classic sporting biplane renowned for its aerobatic qualities
8. Hawker Hurricane — A distant descendant of the Pup with similarly wide pilot appeal
9. North American P-51 Mustang — One of the greatest Second World War single-seat fighters, an ace-maker
10. Avro Lancaster — A pilot’s favourite with exceptional handling qualities for a multi-engine type
• From Aeroplane magazine, December 2003, viâ a VC10 fan-site
Vulcan bomber (photo via BBC)
Post Performative Post-Scriptum
The title of this incendiary intervention is a paronomasia on Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power (1992). I don’t like Pantera, but that’s a good title.
Overlord In Terms of Core Issues Around Maximal Engagement with Key Notions of the Über-Feral 