In 2017 my wife and I went to Peru to see the Amazon River. Our travel while in the Amazon region of Peru was all by riverboat.
Before leaving on the trip I read several travel stories by people that had traveled by riverboat. These articles did not describe luxury travel. They described the opposite end of the travel scale.
In March 2017 my wife and I flew to Peru. After spending several days in Lima we took a second flight to Iquitos, a city on the Amazon River. From there we boarded a riverboat an toured the Amazon River for a week. It was an amazing experience. A real learning opportunity.
I start this story with an image of an older lady at work.
Unlike some countries in South America, Peru is not a socialist country. In fact unlike many nations, it has none of the socialistic programs that most industrialized nations have. Those often loved socialistic programs such as social security, medicare, and early childhood education have no place in Peru.
This means that there is no mandatory retirement age in Peru. In fact, there is no retirement in Peru. For that reason, it is common to see older people on the streets selling food or other goods in order to have money for there own food
Timber Cove has a special place in my heart. It was the first weekend getaway for my wife Deloris and and I some 35 years ago. Every year or so I make my way back to the lodge during my yearly sabbatical to Northern California.
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During the sixteenth century, Italian
inventor Leonardo Da Vinci made drawings of an ornithopter flying machine. Some experts say this inspired the modern day
helicopter. In 1784, a year after the first successful ascent in a hot air
balloon, French inventors Launoy and Bienvenue created a toy with a rotary-wing
that could lift and fly. This may have
been inspired by the “Chinese Top” principle and proved the concept of
helicopter flight. In 1863, the French
writer Ponton D’Amecourt was the first person to coin the term
“helicopter” from the two words “helico” for spiral and
“pter” for wings.
The very first piloted
helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu in 1907; however, his design was not
successful. French inventor, Etienne Oehmichen built and flew a helicopter about
a half mile in 1924. Another early helicopter that flew for a decent distance
was the German Focke-Wulf Fw 61. The
inventor of that machine is unknown.
The Piasecki Helicopter Corporation was
founded in 1940 by Frank Piasecki as the P-V Engineering Forum. The PV-2
was the second helicopter flown in the United States (after Sikorsky’s VS-300),
and was designed and flown by Frank Piasecki in 1943.
The company was a designer and manufacturer of helicopters. It was located in Philadelphia, PA and
Morton, PA, in the late 1940s and the 1950s.
Piasecki Helicopter was renamed Vertol Corporation in early 1956. Vertol was acquired by Boeing in 1960 and
renamed Boeing Vertol.
Piasecki Helicopter
designed and sold to the United States Navy a series of tandem rotor helicopters,
starting with the HRP-1 of 1944. The HRP-1 was nicknamed the “flying
banana” because of the upward angle of the aft fuselage that ensured the
large rotors did not strike each other in flight. The name would later be
applied to other Piasecki helicopters of similar design, including the H-21.
The USS Core was
commissioned during World War Two as an aircraft carrier. On June 27,
1943 she transitioned from a training carrier and sortied as the center of Task
Group 21.12, a hunter-killer group. Such
groups provided cover for the movement of convoys and made a great contribution
towards winning the Battle of the Atlantic.
The innovation represented by their formation was a striking development
in antisubmarine warfare. In 1945 as the
war in the Atlantic was winding down, the Core was transferred to the Pacific
Theater.
Piasecki’s company first became known as Piasecki Helicopter
in 1946.
In 1949, Piasecki
proposed the YH-21A Workhorse to the United States Air Force, which was
an improved, all-metal derivative of the HRP-1.
After its maiden flight in April 1952, the USAF ordered 32 H-21A SAR
models and 163 of the more powerful H-21B assault transport variant. With its
improved capabilities, the H-21B
could carry 22 fully equipped infantrymen, or 12 stretchers, plus space for two
medical attendants, in a medivac role. With its Arctic winter capabilities, the
H-21A and H-21B were put into service by both the USAF and the Royal Canadian
Air Force to maintain and service Distant Early Warning radar installations.
On 24 August 1954, with
the assistance of inflight refueling provided by a U.S. Army U-1A Otter, an
H-21C known as Amblin’ Annie became the first helicopter to cross the
United States nonstop.
In June of 1955 the Core was redesignated as a helicopter escort carrier (CVHE-13).
The uprated 1425 hp
Wright engine used in the H-21B was also used in subsequent variants sold to
both the U.S. Army (as the H-21C Shawnee) and the military forces of
several other nations. In 1962, the H-21 was redesignated the CH-21 in U.S.
Army service. The CH-21 was used for Artic rescue because of its excellent low
temperature performance.
In July of 1958 the USS Core was redesignated as a utility
carrier (CVU-13). In May of 1959 the Core was again
redesignated, this time as an aviation transport (T-AKV-41). On December 11,
1961, the USS Core docked in the Port of Saigon to unload 33 Vertol H-21
Shawnee helicopters. Also on board were 400 U.S. soldiers from the 57th
Transport Company from Fort Lewis, and the 8th and 9th Transport Companies from
Fort Bragg, who would operate and maintain the helicopter fleet.
The
relatively slow CH-21 was hampered by vulnerable cables and fuel lines. It was rumored that it was so susceptible to
small arms fire that a CH-21 had been downed by a Viet Cong spear.
On February 4, 1962 the first United States Helicopter was shot down during the Vietnam War. The helicopter which was shot down was one of fifteen helicopters that were ferrying South Vietnamese Army troops into an area of the Mekong Delta near the village of Hong My for a battle. That helicopter had arrived in South Vietnam on the ferry carrier USS Core a few months earlier. The crew was assigned to airlift Vietnamese Army troops into combat.
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