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An autonomous guidance and flight control system was integrated and flight tested on a Black Hawk helicopter as part of an effort to provide all weather capability for U.S. Army fleet rotorcraft. T...

The purpose of this feasibility analysis is to assess the feasibility of a joint program office to manage the cross-service Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky H-60 helicopter. The Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky H-60 helicopter is a multipurpose aircraft employed by numerous United States government agencies including many in the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This feasibility analysis will use a quantitative comparative analysis to analyze the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy’s procurements of the H-60 helicopter and assess if there are cost savings that could be realized with a joint program office. Additionally, we conducted a qualitative comparative analysis to determine if there are benefits or disadvantages to joint program offices. Our findings revealed that there are legitimate quantitative advantages for joint programs due to common economic principles of economies of scale and volume discounts. However, there are several qualitative detriments that must be overcome in order to transition the H-60 helicopter program to a joint office. These findings led us to recommend that the H-60 helicopter program remain separate offices managed by each individual service due to the established service life of the H-60. Nevertheless, future major weapons systems could benefit from a joint office if adopted early enough in the program’s life cycle. Lieutenant Commander, United States Coast Guard Major, United States Army Lieutenant, United States Navy Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

The current understanding of Black Hawk Down is based on two assumptions: allegations of tired tactics and claims by Somali National Alliance leader Mohammed Farrah Aideed. These assumptions, accepted without much analysis or supporting evidence, stem from analysing Black Hawk Down working backwards from after the event, with a predeterminant methodology. This article examines the causation objectively, showing these assumptions as evidentiary weak, and instead highlights the actions of another American unit, Team Courage, as a potential factor in the events of 3 October, universally overlooked thus far, prompting a reinterpretation of the existing narrative, the SNA as an enemy, and the veracity of Aideed’s claims.

In a recent article in this journal (García-Grajales et al., 2018), an adult Great Black Hawk (Buteogallus urubitinga) was mistakenly identified as an adult of the Solitary Eagle (Buteogallus solitarius). The Solitary Eagle differs from the Greater Black Eagle in having the longest and widest wings, and the shortest tail. These characteristics give it a more triangular shape in flight. These differences are easy to see in Figures 1–3. The same authors also cite a case of the nesting of the Solitary Eagle in Mexico (Smith, 1982). However, after reviewing photos of the young, we consider that this record is probably the Common Black Hawk (B. anthracinus). The illustrations of the Solitary Eagle in field guides of Mexico and Central America (Howell & Webb, 1995; Van Perlo, 2006) demonstrate greater similarity with the Great Black Hawk, contributing to the frequent confusion of the two species if used without consulting the text. The new features published here and in Clark et al. (2006) and Clark and Schmitt (2017) should help with correct identification of Buteogallus species in the future.

A flight simulation model for the UH-60 Black Hawk, based on Sikorsky's GenHel model, is modified to simulate a locked failure of a main rotor swashplate servo actuator, which is compensated by using the stabilator as a redundant control effector. Steady-state trim analysis is performed to demonstrate feasibility of trimmed flight in various conditions with different locked servo actuator positions for the forward, aft, and lateral actuators. A model-following, linear dynamic inversion controller is implemented and modified to account for locked actuator position. Postfailure, the controls are reconfigured to partially reallocate the control authority in the longitudinal axis from the main rotor longitudinal cyclic to the stabilator. This is done by manipulation of only the control allocation relating pilot stick inputs to servo actuator positions, whereas the feedback control gains and mechanical rigging between servo actuators and rotor pitch controls remain identical to the baseline. Flight simulation results demonstrate the ability of this reallocation to compensate for locked failure of the forward main rotor swashplate servo actuator, as well as the ability of the aircraft to decelerate from cruise at 120 kt to 50 kt, slower than the published safe rolling landing speed of 60 kt. A similar range of locked positions of the forward and aft actuators is demonstrated to be feasible for aircraft recovery using control of the stabilator. Feasibility of aircraft recovery for locked positions of the lateral servo actuator is also considered, as well as the effect of variation in gross weight, speed of actuator locking, and delays in fault detection and identification.

Review of: Boone, Black Hawk, and Crockett in 1833: Unsettling the Mythic West, edited by Michael A. Lofaro.

This multicultural project examines fictional and non-fictional accounts of travel in the Early Republic and antebellum periods. Connecting literary representations of geographic spaces within and outside of U.S. borders to evolving definitions of national American identity, the book explores divergent visions of contested spaces. Through an examination of depictions of the land and travel in fiction and non-fiction, the study uncovers the spatial and legal conceptions of national identity. The study argues that imagined geographies in American literature dramatize a linguistic contest among dominant and marginal voices. Blending interpretations of canonical authors, such as James Fenimore Cooper, Frederick Douglass, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Herman Melville, with readings of less well -known writers like Gilbert Imlay, Elizabeth House Trist, Sauk Chief Black Hawk, William Grimes, and Moses Roper, the book interprets diverse authors' impressions of significant spaces migrations. The movements and regions covered include the Anglo-American migration to the Trans-Appalachian Valley after the Revolutionary War; the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and Anglo-American travel west of the Mississippi; the Underground Railroad as depicted in the fugitive slave narrative and novel; and the extension of American interests in maritime endeavors off the California coast and in the South Pacific.

Plaintiffs filed a February 2018 lawsuit in Black Hawk County District Court against Cedar Falls Schools and the softball team's coaches. The suit alleges negligence by the defendants when a teamma...

The Common Black Hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus), a widespread neotropical raptor, has been known since the 1970s to nest as far north as western Texas, but few breeding records exist for the adjacent area of northcentral Mexico. In 2015 we located two active nest sites within the Maderas del Carmen Flora and Fauna Protection Area at northwestern Coahuila. The nest sites were in Pecan (Carya illinoiensis) and Arizona Pine (Pinus arizonica) trees, both near natural permanent water sources. Our recent nest site records along with others in eastern Coahuila suggest the existence of a corridor connecting Texas and Nuevo Leon populations, highlighting the importance of transboundary natural protected areas for species conservation.

The Fowler Brothers famously studied the skull of Black Hawk—an Indian warrior—before he died in 1838. The studies of his skull—published in the American Phrenological Journal and Miscellany—describe Black Hawk’s mind as in a “savage state.” The warrior’s personality was characterized as bellicose, courageous, destructive and secretive: traits revealed by examining a plaster mold of his head. Public discourse surrounding the skull weaves intertextually with cultural notions that collecting skulls served as a gentleman’s pastime. A sign of refinement was displaying human skulls like household knick-knacks. A darker side to skull-collecting came from grave-robbers who could earn cash by selling Indian body parts to museums and collectors. As we learn later, one such collector dug up Black Hawk’s corpse and stole his skull.

Objective: We evaluated three interface input methods for a simulated manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) supervisory control system designed for Air Mission Commanders (AMCs) in Black Hawk helicopters. Background: A key component of the U.S. Army’s vision for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is to integrate UAVs into manned missions, called MUM-T (Department of Defense, 2010). One application of MUM-T is to provide the AMC of a team of Black Hawk helicopters control of multiple UAVs, offering advanced reconnaissance and real-time intelligence of flight routes and landing zones. Method: Participants supervised a (simulated) team of two helicopters and three UAVs while traveling toward a landing zone to deploy ground troops. Participants classified aerial photographs collected by UAVs, monitored instrument warnings, and responded to radio communications. We manipulated interface input modality (touch, voice, multimodal) and task load (number of photographs). Results: Compared with voice, touch and multimodal control resulted in better performance on all tasks and resulted in lower subjective workload and greater subjective situation awareness, ps < .05. Participants with higher spatial ability classified more aerial photographs ( r = .75) and exhibited shorter response times to instrument warnings ( r = −.58) than participants with lower spatial ability. Conclusion: Touchscreen and multimodal control were superior to voice control in a supervisory control task that involved monitoring visual displays and communicating on radio channels. Application: Although voice control is often considered a more natural and less physically demanding input method, caution is needed when designing visual displays for users sharing common communication channels.

From the Ogaden War to the Black Hawk Down incident, the Horn of Africa was a theatre of events with far-reaching international consequences. This paper argues that the distinctive process leading to the end of the bipolar conflict in the Horn is crucial to understanding the role of this region both during and after the Cold War. Through an extensive analysis of the period 1985–1991, this article explains why only a few years after the ‘burial’ of SALT II in the sands of the Ogaden, the superpowers withdrew from the region which had been the symbol of the failure of detente. Similarly, an analysis of the end of the Cold War is paramount to understanding why, after the break-up of the USSR, the Horn of Africa hosted one of the most tragic episodes of post-Cold War US foreign policy.

After the successful US–UN action in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, by the mid-1990s Washington's enthusiasm for multilateral action had already faded away. This was evident after the ‘Black Hawk Down’ disaster of the US Mission in Somalia in October 1993 and the release of a much more restrictive peacekeeping policy in May 1994 (PDD-25). The US inaction during the following Rwandan genocide in spring 1994 was then seen as the obvious consequence of the American ‘trauma’ in Somalia, as well as the symbol of Washington's withdrawal from peacekeeping commitments. However, in the light of new archival documents a different scenario emerges. This article shows that the consequential link, often stressed by the literature, between the Somali disaster, the release of PDD-25 and American inaction in Rwanda is much less straightforward. This suggests that the policy in Rwanda was not just a consequence of the Somali debacle and that the reasons for US inaction toward the genocide must be gauged within a ...

espanolEl articulo muestra que recursos de montaje se emplean en la pelicula Black Hawk Down para corregir la impresion del publico estadounidense sobre la derrota militar en la Batalla de Mogadiscio. Su montaje convierte al espectador en un ranger haciendole compartir su experiencia belica y principios, asi como enfatiza en la profesionalidad y etica del soldado estadounidense. Convierte una debacle militar en un triunfo etico. Como trasfondo se pone de manifiesto la importancia del montaje cinematografico para definir (o redefinir) la vision del espectador sobre un hecho historico. Metodologicamente se emplea un tipo de analisis deducido de las teorias de Eisenstein. EnglishThis paper describes the editing strategies used in the film Black Hawk Down in order to correct North American viewer’s impression on the Battle of Mogadishu. Its editing style forces the audience to share the rangers experience and principles, and stresses on the ethics and professionalism of US soldiers so as to transform a military debacle into an ethical triumph. This study presents the underlying role of film editing when defining (or redefining) the audience’s impression of a historical event. The methodological approach is based on Eisenstein theories and key concepts.

This film is based on true deadly events encountered by US troops in Somalia in 1993 that began when a rebel army shot down an American helicopter. Scott was interested in the story because of the theme of people caught on the edge of society, revealing human behavior stretched and challenged. The production was staged in Morocco. It took four months of diplomacy to bring this to a reality and even involved Colin Powell, then US secretary of state. Two thousand extras from twenty-four African communities were employed as well as a large cast of American actors, including Sam Shepard, Josh Harnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, and Eric Bana. As many as eleven cameras were used to shoot the intricately choreographed battle sequences. This highly respected film won the Academy Award for Best Editing and Best Sound.

This chapter compares Black Hawk’s description of his people’s resistance to Illinois settlement in Life of Black Hawk or Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak (1833) with Margaret Fuller’s description of the settler’s territorial gains in her travel account Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Where Black Hawk relates his people’s belonging to the land through a shared body of Sauk oral tradition and collective forms of testimony, Fuller narrates U.S. settlers’ claims through a similarly shared body of classical allusions and employs the Western logic of translatio studii. Both of these accounts frame nineteenth-century Sauk dispossession within a larger temporal arc, showcasing competing and culturally specific rhetorics of belonging beyond the state. Recognizing these texts culturally specific accounts of statelessness highlights the unsettling nature of their competing epistemologies of land ownership.

Hernan Vera & Andrew M. Gordon. Screen Saviors: Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness. Rowan & Littlefield, 2003. 203 pages, $75.00. A Huge Subject Bizarre as it may seem, there is not that much difference between a creaky silent film like Birth of a Nation (1915) and a state of the art wonder like Black Hawk Down (2001). Both deal, in essence, with brave, upstanding, loyal white chaps fighting a savage and chaotic horde of people of African descent, and it is abundantly clear which group is the superior. The reason for this continuity is not just the baleful consistency of racism. Rather, it is the need for white maleness to define and assert itself against the idea of the proverbial "other." Nonwhites in films exist only to prop up the unstable identity of the dominant American group, to act as a mirror reflecting back the supremacy of whiteness. This is, in a nutshell, the argument of Hernan Vera's and Andrew M. Gordon's provocative book. Each chapter takes a different aspect of what they term the "sincere fictions" of Caucasian superiority and shows how it operates in various films. Apart from old friends like Griffith's epic and Gone with the Wind, both of which are central to their idea of the "divided white self," the authors examine the film convention whereby non-white races always need to be led to freedom and fulfillment by a Persil-bright messiah (Stargate, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom); they analyze the role of Tahitians in the drama of male authority that exists in different ways in the three versions of Mutiny on the Bounty; they follow the evolution of what might be called the Scarlett and Mammy complex in women's relationships in Imitation of Life (Stahl's and Sirk's) and in more recent productions like Passion Fish. There is plenty more besides. The general message is that, although the archetypes (or stereotypes) may vary according to different historical conditions and cultural pressures, certain concepts remain depressingly constant. Blackness and otherness is passive or savage, comic or servile; the lesser breeds, as Kipling would have put it, are capable only of nurturing whites through their neuroses or of being led by WASPish heroes. Even a righton New Age western like Dances With Wolves turns out to be a story of a white male crisis in which the Native Americans are subsidiary elements in Kevin Costner's psychodrama. It is, in short, a huge subject, but Vera and Gordon (they sound like a bad nightclub act) have not written a huge book. As a result, they suffer from trying to pack too much into the space. Matters are not helped by their use of examples from almost every conceivable non-white image, from African and Native Americans to Vietnamese in The Green Beret, and even the aliens in Men In Black. Because each of these groups raises slightly different contextual questions, the book finds itself skimming over problems or eliding issues that should be separate. For instance, there is a difference between white messiahs operating in their own country (To Kill A Mockingbird) and those spreading their beneficence abroad ( The Man Who Would Be King). …

This article focuses on the United States Northwest Ordinance of 1787's profession of ‘utmost good faith’ towards Indians and its provision for ‘just and lawful wars’ against them. As interpreted by US officials as they authorized and practised war against native communities in the Northwest Territory from 1787 to 1832, the ‘just and lawful wars’ clause legalized wars of ‘extirpation’ or ‘extermination’, terms synonymous with genocide by most definitions, against native people who resisted US demands that they cede their lands. Although US military operations seldom achieved extirpation, this was due to their ineptness and the success of indigenous strategies rather than an absence of intention. When US military forces did succeed in achieving their objective, the result was massacre, as revealed in the Black Hawk War of 1832. US policy did not call for genocide in the first instance, preferring that Indians embrace the gift of civilization in exchange for their lands. Should Indians reject this d...

Opiyo Oloya’s Black Hawks Rising takes a critical look at the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), from its humble beginnings following the arrival of Ugandan troops in Mogadishu in 2007 to t...

Only 2 of Alexander Wilson's (1766–1813) study skins are known to exist in modern collections with data confirming their provenance. Both are type specimens, preserved at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (ANSP), and are among the most precious artifacts of American science. In 2018, I discovered a third Wilson type in the ANSP collection with a note from John Cassin (1813–1869) confirming its provenance. This paper describes the discovery and rediscovery of the type specimen of Wilson's “variety of the Black Hawk” (Falco niger), overlooked by ornithologists and historians for more than 150 yr. Nomenclature is unaffected because F. niger Wilson is a synonym of Buteo lagopus (Pontoppidan 1763), the Rough-legged Hawk.

Natural intergeneric hybridization occurs rarely in raptors. In 2012, L. Hug observed a juvenile hawk interacting with a banded adult Common Black Hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus) in Sonoma County, California, USA, and reported that the juvenile was a Common Black Hawk × Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) hybrid (Hug 2016; Western Birds 47:325–326). A disparity of opinions concerning the parentage of the juvenile prompted us to document the nesting efforts of this Common Black Hawk in 2013 and 2014. The 2013 nesting attempt failed during incubation before the identity of the mate could be confirmed. In 2014 the adult female Common Black Hawk bred with an adult male Red-shouldered Hawk (B. l. elegans), and this pair fledged one hybrid offspring. Evidence of this hybridization included observations of the pair engaged in courtship flights (n = 3), copulations (n = 2), and simultaneous nest attendance (n = 2), and the offspring's intermediate physical characters and vocalizations. Although the hybrid offspring's juvenile plumage more closely resembled a juvenile Common Black Hawk overall, the hybrid also exhibited some intermediate plumage, morphological, and vocal characteristics. This hybridization event appears to be an example of the desperation hypothesis, in which a rare vagrant, unable to secure a conspecific mate, settled on a species of raptor abundant in western California. Dietary overlap of the two parental species (e.g., crayfish, amphibians) and strong associations with aquatic habitats may also have facilitated this pairing and hybridization event.

A local food system may be an alternative to the increasingly globalized and concentrated food market and a means to augment the availability of fresh foods, create economically viable options for farmers and enhance the health of local ecosystems. Consumers are a vital component of these systems. Insight into the decision-making process surrounding the purchase of local foods can aid in efforts to build thriving local food systems. Studies on consumer attitudes show that, in general, consumers are aware and supportive of local foods. Abstract or civic factors, such as concern for the environment or food safety, are often identified as predictive characteristics. Results conflict, however, as to the influence of traditional demographic factors. This study analyzed telephone survey data of consumers in Black Hawk County, Iowa. Causative factors are evaluated within the context of a two-phase decision-making model, which distinguishes symbolic adoption, the acceptance of an idea, from use adoption, the behavioral practice of the idea. Testable variables are grouped as either sociological/civic or expediency factors. Sociological/civic factors include social demographic variables in addition to civic concerns. Expediency factors include measures of time constraints and economic variables. It is hypothesized that sociological/civic factors are relatively more important than expediency factors in symbolic adoption of local foods, and these factors must interact positively with expediency factors for use adoption to occur. Final multivariate regression models are derived. A two-stage least squares approach is used to incorporate the final prediction model for symbolic adoption into that for use adoption. Results show that sociological/civic factors are relatively more important to symbolic adoption than expediency factors, particularly the civic factors of having concerns about food safety, following environmental issues and knowing a farmer. Use adoption is more likely if appropriate interactions with the expediency variables of price-consciousness and income take place. For symbolic adopters, lower price-consciousness and lower incomes lead to an increased tendency to buy local foods. For those not indicating symbolic adoption, opposite effects occur. For both groups, a complementary interplay with the sociological factors of educational level and knowing a farmer also influences use adoption.

BACKGROUND During ground operations, rotary-wing aircraft engines and subsystems produce noise hazards that place airfield personnel at risk for hearing damage. The noise exposure levels outside the aircraft during various operating conditions, and the distances from aircraft at which they drop to safe levels, are not readily available. The current study measured noise levels at various positions around the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for three operating conditions typically used when the aircraft is on the ground. METHODS Microphones were positioned systematically around the helicopter and A-weighted sound pressure levels (SPLs) were computed from the recordings. In addition, the 85-dBA SPL contour around the aircraft was mapped. The resulting A-weighted SPLs and contour mapping were used to determine the noise hazard area around the helicopter. RESULTS Measurements reported here show noise levels of 105 dB or greater in all operating conditions. The fueling location at the left rear of the aircraft near the auxiliary power unit (APU) is the area of greatest risk for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Additionally, sound field contours indicate noise hazard areas (>85 dBA SPL) can extend beyond 100 ft from the helicopter. CONCLUSIONS This report details the areas of greatest risk for auditory injury around the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Our findings suggest the area of hazardous noise levels around the aircraft can extend to neighboring aircraft, particularly on the side of the aircraft where the APU is located. Hearing protection should be worn whenever the aircraft is operating, even if working at a distance.Jones HG, Greene NT, Chen MR, Azcona CM, Archer BJ, Reeves ER. The danger zone for noise hazards around the Black Hawk helicopter. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2018; 89(6):547-551.

While preparing the 2003 invasion of Iraq, President Bush invited his advisors to screenings of Black Hawk Down (2002). “Bush . . . told his aides that America’s hasty exit from Somalia after 18 soldiers died in the 1993 raid made famous in the movie . . . emboldened America’s terrorist enemies” to attack us on September 11. This study explains the ideological force of Black Hawk Down by framing it as the culmination of developments in American national mythology, and the mass culture genres that carry it. The “Platoon Movie” developed during WW II propagated a new myth of multi-ethnic American nationality, and a “war imaginary” which figures WW II as the “Good War.” That myth was discredited by defeat in Vietnam; but starting in 1980, American war films, and war-themed science fiction films, seconded the work of neo-conservative policy makers to recuperate the “war imaginary.” This entailed a sharpening of racialist interpretations of international conflict, and tension between the multicultural symbolism of the “platoon” and the idealization of Whites as “real Americans.”