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1793_21 | Alternative "DF" was chosen as the preferred alternative for the highway and in October 2001, the Federal Highway Administration gave the go-ahead for the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement. The Federal Environment Impact Statement was completed in April 2002 with the Record of Decision approved in June of that year.
The Department of Highways received approval for the Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement in October 2002. The commenting period was extended 60 days to February 25, 2003. The Amended Record of Decision was approved on May 12, 2003.
Six consultants were hired to provide the final design for the segment of Corridor H from Kerens to Parsons. As of 2015, final design had not yet been completed, with construction of the segment from Kerens to a point north of the Randolph County/Tucker County border (but not all the way to Parsons) scheduled to begin in mid-2016. |
1793_22 | Work on bridges along the segment began in 2018. In June 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded funding for the Kerens–Parsons section. In early 2021, a paving contract was awarded, and completion of the segment was expected in late 2023.
Phase 3: Parsons to Davis
Phase III is a expressway from east of Parsons to immediately east of Davis along West Virginia Route 93 within Tucker County. |
1793_23 | On December 4, 2002, the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement was approved after additional Environmental investigations were completed. The additional analysis was a result of the West Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel, a federally endangered species that was discovered in the vicinity. A public hearing was held on February 6, 2003, at the Blackwater Lodge in Davis, with comments on the meeting turned in by April 22. The Thomas-Davis city council had until June 19 to review the situation. The Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement was expected to be approved on the segment in June 2005, with the FHWA expected to sign the Amended Record of Decision in August 2005, however, the discovery of the West Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel delayed the project; WVDOH had to conduct additional environmental investigations. |
1793_24 | The Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Statement (SFEIS) was approved in 2007. However, a reevaluation of the SFEIS is underway, specifically for updated endangered species surveys. The issuance of the Amended Record of Decision (AROD) is to be determined. Final design is anticipated to begin in 2025, and construction is scheduled to begin in 2031.
Phase 4: Davis to Bismarck |
1793_25 | This segment of Corridor H stretches through Tucker and Grant counties. The alignment runs from West Virginia Route 93, east of West Virginia Route 32 near Davis to Bismarck near the intersection of West Virginia Route 42 and West Virginia Route 93. The Federal Highway Administration issued a record of decision on March 23, 2001, that cleared the way for design, right-of-way purchases, and construction for this segment. A contract was awarded in December 2010 to Trumbull Corporation for the construction of 6.2 miles of Corridor H, from the existing corridor at Bismarck in Grant County to the WV 93 connector at Mount Storm in Tucker County; this section opened by November 2014. A contract was awarded in August 2012 to JF Allen for the construction of the remaining 9.9 miles portion of the Davis to Bismarck section, from east of WV 32 to the WV 93 Connector at Mount Storm, and this section opened in November 2016.
Phase 5: Bismarck to Forman |
1793_26 | This completed section totals within Grant County.
The record of decision was issued in July 2001. The original timeline was to begin acquiring right-of-way in June 2003, bid contracts in August 2004 and begin construction in September 2004 with a completion date in September 2006. Greenland Gap activists, however, began documenting the Gap's civil war history and natural features and successfully persuaded the West Virginia Department of Highways to move the alignment 1/4 of a mile away from the Gap. This spared several houses in a neighboring village and reduced the effect the highway would have on the Gap. A one-mile (1.6 km) access road between the village of Greenland and West Virginia Route 93 was eliminated and an interchange was moved from between Greenland and West Virginia Route 93 to north of Scherr for West Virginia Route 93. |
1793_27 | Construction began in spring 2007 and completed in November 2013. The section from County Route 3 east to Forman and Moorefield opened in October 2010. A further section from WV 93 to CR 3 opened on October 23, 2012. The final section, from WV 93 near Scherr to the WV 42 connector at Bismarck, opened November 22, 2013.
Phase 6: Forman to Moorefield
The sixth phase in Corridor H's completion from Elkins to the state line, it travels through Grant and Hardy counties for a total length of . This phase also includes of upgraded highway from US 220 to WV 55 just east of Moorefield; the mainlines for Corridor H are .
The first section of this phase to open was a three-mile (5 km) four-lane highway from US 220 to the WV 55 interchange in November 2005. In August 2005, two grade and drain contracts were awarded on both sides of the South Branch Potomac River, with construction beginning that September. Construction completed on both contracts on the spring of 2007. |
1793_28 | In July 2006, two grade and drain contracts were awarded west of the South Branch Potomac River.
On August 8, 2006, it was announced that were to be graded for paving at a cost of $23,747,933. This segment began construction in September and was completed in August 2008.
During the same month, South Branch Potomac River Bridge contract was awarded. The $30,884,656 contract, located just north of Moorefield, will contain a single eight-span steel girder bridge over the South Branch of the Potomac and a seven-span crossing over the adjacent floodplain. The bridge will utilize 4,300 tons of steel. Construction began in September with a completion date set for August 1, 2009.
The section from Moorefield to Knobley Rd, west of Forman, was opened in late October 2010.
Phase 7: Moorefield to Baker
On May 31, 2000, ground was broken on the Moorefield to Baker section of Corridor H. Nearly 1,000 supporters were present. |
1793_29 | On June 1, 2000, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) informed the "West Virginia Division of Highways that it has made a determination of the effects of an alternative alignment of Corridor H near Moorefield on historic properties." Sam Beverage, acting Secretary for the Department of Transportation, stated that the Meadows and the P.W. Inkeep House were both to the alignment chosen for Corridor H but would not be impacted.
June 5, 2000 was the starting date for two segments in Hardy county. of partial controlled-access highway in the first segment, totaling $20,746,510 included 2,810,416 cubic yards (2,148,717 m³) of excavation, three access roads to farms, two structural plate drainage pipes and a six-span prestressed concrete beam bridge over Lick Run and CR 6. |
1793_30 | Another segment at a cost of $12,499,009 was let to construction as well. of highway would extend the first segment of Phase 7 to just south of the Baker interchange. This included 1,963,415 cubic yards (1,501,138 m³) of excavation, one farm access road, two structural plate drainage pipes and two out of the four ramps for the Baker interchange.
On August 30, 2000, of four-lane divided highway was let to construction. It stretched from CR 23/4 to CR 8 and had a price tag of $11.4 million.
On September 28, 2000, the Department of Transportation announced that the construction of a four-lane partial controlled-access highway connecting West Virginia Route 55 to the Clifford Hollow Bridge will involve the construction of two bridges and of roadway. The cost for this segment was $29.6 million. A second project would connect the Clifford Hollow Bridge to county route 1 and involve of construction at a cost of $15.2 million. |
1793_31 | A segment of roadway was let to construction on October 18, 2000, at a cost of $9,864,718. This segment stretched from CR 23/4 to CR 8.
The final segment of Phase 7 was let to construction on November 2, 2000, for the Clifford Hollow Bridge at a cost of $17.8 million. It was completed in October 2003.
A three-mile (5 km) segment of highway from County Route 1 to County Route 23/9 opened to traffic in August 2002. On November 17, 2002, a five-mile (8 km) section of roadway opened from County Route 23/9 to the Baker interchange. With the completion of the Clifford Hollow Bridge in October 2003, the segment of Corridor H through Hardy county between Moorefield and Baker was opened to traffic.
Phase 8: Baker to Wardensville
In December 2000, the Federal Highway Administration issued the Record of Decision on this segment of Corridor H. |
1793_32 | A construction contract was awarded on October 1, 2001, to construct a segment of Phase 8 from Hanging Rock to County Route 23/8 in Hardy county. This segment is located just east of the Lost River bridge near McCauley and cost $12,891,522.
Another contract was awarded on December 5, 2001, at a total of $18,549,091 to construct of Corridor H from County Route 23/8 to the west approach of the Lost River bridge. Grading and drainage required 3.3 million cubic yards (2,500,000 m³) of earthwork, including over 1 million cubic yards (800,000 m³) of "borrow" material and several pipes to carry small streams underneath the roadway. A three-span fabricated steel girder bridge was constructed to carry the four-lane divided highway over Sauerkraut Run. |
1793_33 | December 21, 2001 was another important day, as a section was awarded at a cost of $25,019,472. It stretched from the Baker interchange and extended to the west side of the bridge crossing the Lost River in Hardy county. The remaining two incomplete ramps at the Baker interchange were completed.
On March 4, 2002, the Department of Highways awarded a contract to construct a segment of Corridor H at a cost of $15,858,045 that extended from Lost River Sinks to County Route 23/12. This included landscaping for the historic Hott House as part of the construction mitigation program and involved the construction of a connection to existing West Virginia Route 55. This segment required 4.3 million cubic yards (3,200,000 m³) of earthwork, drainage, paving, signing and pavement markings. It was completed in the fall of 2003.
The completion of the Lost River Bridge at McCauley signaled the end of construction on phase 8. The segment opened to traffic in mid-October 2006. |
1793_34 | Phase 9: Wardensville to the Virginia state line
This phase of Corridor H (US 48) stretches from Wardensville to West Virginia Route 55 at the Virginia state line.
As part of the agreement, the Federal Highway Administration and the West Virginia Department of Transportation would defer construction, along with final design and right-of-way acquisition on the section of roadway between Wardensville and the Virginia state line for as long as 20 years. This delay could be shortened if Virginia approves their section of Corridor H (US 48) between the West Virginia state line and Interstate 81, if traffic increases significantly on West Virginia Route 55 between Wardensville and the state line, or if required to ensue eligibility for Appalachian highway corridor funding.
The Amended Record of Decision was approved on May 16, 2003.
West Virginia state line to Interstate 81 in Virginia |
1793_35 | No work or planning has started on this segment of Corridor H yet. Virginia will most undoubtedly wait until West Virginia completes most of their segments before completing their small segment from the West Virginia state line to Interstate 81 near Strasburg, Virginia.
In April 2003, new US 48 signs were installed along State Route 55 in Virginia. While State Route 55 will not be the final alignment of Corridor H through this region, it will be a temporary transition as West Virginia completes their portions to the state line.
Virginia also designated State Route 55 a Virginia Scenic Byway. Plans are in the works with VDOT to maintain the existing facility and continue to make spot improvements.
Related projects |
1793_36 | Rails to Trails
The former Western Maryland Railroad that stretched through eastern West Virginia was opened in 2003, only instead of carrying train cars, it will serve hikers and bikers. This "rail to trail" project was built in conjunction with the construction of Corridor H. It includes parking areas, restroom facilities, and walking trails. These projects will total approximately and cost around $1.5 million. Two segments that were constructed from Parsons to Montrose and from Montrose to Elkins were awarded on February 20, 2001. It was named the Allegheny Highland Trail.
Environmental measures
The Division of Highways received the Federal Highway Administration's 2001 Environmental Award in the cultural resources category for the educational tools and web sites based on the Reed Farmstead archaeological dig on Corridor H. |
1793_37 | State Highway Engineer Joe Deneault explained when the 200-year-old farm was discovered, the Division of Highways wanted to share the process of how the Hardy County family's home would be uncovered and preserved. "We wanted to share this process with the public," Deneault said. " The Reed Farmstead was an amazing discovery and we decided that a video and web sites would be the best way to share this extensive archaeological dig with area residents. As the project progressed, it was clear that this could be an important educational tool for students as well."
An educational video was produced that illustrated the step-by-step process in the identification and preservation procedures taken by WVDOH. The video was shown for 60 days on the Corridor H web site and a videocassette was mailed to every school teaching grades eighth through twelfth in the state. |
1793_38 | The WVDOH also developed two web sites based on the project:, that offers the history of the farm and details about the dig, and, which is an interactive site for children.
The award was presented to the WVDOH and to the two consultants, Michael Baker Jr., Inc. and Charles Ryan Associates, working on this project at a ceremony in Washington, D. C. on April 20.
Connecting highway
Maryland and West Virginia have begun planning an upgraded U.S. Route 220, possibly as an extension of Corridor O, to connect Corridor H to Interstate 68 near Cumberland, MD. Committees in Cumberland, Keyser, and Moorefield have been created to discuss the highway and thus far several plans have been established but one individual plan has not yet been chosen.
Major intersections |
1793_39 | Previous uses of the designation
US 48 is one of the newest additions to the United States Numbered Highway system, having been commissioned in 2002. Before this designation, sections east of Moorefield, West Virginia to I-81 were known as West Virginia SR 55 and SR 55, and sections north of Elkins, West Virginia were known as US 219. West Virginia has US 48 signed sparsely within its borders for unimproved sections of the planned highway. |
1793_40 | US 48 is one of the few U.S. Route numbers to be used three times for three separate roadways. The first use of US 48 was in the 1920s, in Northern California, before being absorbed by US 50. The original "US 48" was one of the original routes in the United States Numbered Highways system. Assigned in 1926, it ran between US 99 at French Camp, California, outside Stockton, and US 101 at San Jose, California. By 1931, however, the route had been deleted. Most of the route later became part of US 50. US 48 was the first US highway to be deleted in California.
Then, US 48 was designated for what is now I-68 before it entered the Interstate Highway System. Constructed as Corridor E of the ADHS as a replacement for a particularly primitive section of US 40, it was initially numbered US 48 when construction began in 1965; in 1991, however, it was redesignated as an interstate route.
References
External links |
1793_41 | West Virginia Corridor H from the West Virginia Department of Transportation
West Virginia Corridor H from the West Virginia Department of Transportation on Archive.org
Corridor H from Gribblenation
Endpoints of U.S. Highway 48
48
H
48
48 |
1794_0 | is a tactical role-playing video game developed and published by Nippon Ichi Software for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console.
Nippon Ichi has also licensed or produced a wide variety of Disgaea merchandise, including a manga. In 2006, Nippon Ichi released a sequel called Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories for the PlayStation 2, as well as a 12-episode anime adaptation titled Makai Senki Disgaea. A PlayStation Portable version of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness was released entitled Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.
A direct sequel, taking place 10 years after the end of the game, named Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness was released for PlayStation 3 in 2013, and stars the main cast (and additional new characters) of Hour of Darkness.
In 2004, the game received a spiritual sequel called Phantom Brave. |
1794_1 | Gameplay
Disgaea is a tactical role playing game. Battle gameplay takes place on a map divided into a square grid. The player controls a squad of humanoid units and monsters, which each occupy a single square of the grid and do combat with a group of enemies. Depending on the character and attack selected, the player will be able to deal damage to a specific enemy unit or a designated region of the map. Combat ends when all enemy units or all of the player's units are destroyed.
Humanoid characters may lift and throw other units across the map in order to allow allies to move further or force enemies to keep their distance. This even allows the player to capture enemies by throwing them into the base panel; these enemies then become allies, and can be used on subsequent maps. The chance of capturing an enemy in this manner depends on several factors. Failure to capture the enemy will result in the death of all characters inside the base panel, and the enemy will survive. |
1794_2 | Geo Panels |
1794_3 | Some maps in Disgaea contain Geo Panels, which are represented as squares on the floor of the map of a particular color. Colored objects on the map known as Geo Symbols may be present on either Geo Panels or regular, uncolored squares on the map. These Geo Symbols can usually be thrown. When a Geo Symbol sits on a Geo Panel, it gives all Geo Panels of the color it sits on a property, such as making all units on them invulnerable, or decreasing the HP of friendly units on those panels by 20% at the end of each turn. When a Geo Symbol is destroyed on a Geo Panel of a different color than its own, it causes panels of that color to change to the color of the Geo Symbol and damages units on those panels. If another Geo Symbol is on one of the panels when it changes, it too is destroyed, and the Geo Panels begin to change color and properties again, creating a chain reaction. This chain reaction can be of any length that can be supported by the number of colors of panel and symbols on the |
1794_4 | map, the amount of "chain" gained with each square increasing by one every Geo Symbol. The higher the chain, the more the bonus gauge fills. Some Geo Symbols have the color "clear" and cause the Geo Panels to become regular map squares when destroyed. Removing all of the Geo Panels from a map will cause a blast of energy which hurts all enemies on the map and results in large bonuses for the player, referred to in the manual as the Panel Termination Bonus. |
1794_5 | Laharl's castle
Laharl's castle acts as a hub, allowing the player to access the other locations in the game without physically having to travel between the castle and a desired map. Each episode of the game gives the player access to a new set of maps, which must be completed in order to proceed in the plot. With the exception of the Item World and the Dark Assembly, all maps are accessed by speaking to a dimensional gatekeeper. With few exceptions, maps can be accessed and played again at any time, occasionally with minor changes, such as boss levels, where the boss will be replaced by a high level generic enemy. |
1794_6 | Disgaea has only one pair of stores where items may be purchased, consisting of an armor shop and a weapon shop within Laharl's castle. These shops are described in-game as the Netherworld branch of the Rosen Queen Co. The overall quality and types of the items sold in these shops can be changed through proposals to the Dark Assembly. A hospital where characters may be healed in exchange for payment is also present in the same area of the castle and rewards Laharl and company by giving them items when they pay specific amounts of money for treatment. |
1794_7 | Dark Assembly
In order to perform specific actions outside of combat the player must address the Dark Assembly. To create new characters, improve the inventory of the castle store, or unlock new maps Laharl or other members of his party must present a proposal to the Dark Assembly, who will vote on whether they should or should not provide aid to Laharl's party. Prior to voting, senators in the assembly represent their predilection toward the party visually, glowing blue if they favor that character or red if they do not. If they are glowing red, senators can be bribed with items from the player's inventory to sway their vote in the player's favor. If a proposal fails to receive sufficient votes, the player may attempt to pass the bill anyway by choosing to "persuade by force" and attempting to defeat opposing senators in battle. |
1794_8 | The proposals available to place before the senate depend on the number of promotion examinations completed by a character; these examinations consist of a battle between a handful of monsters and a single character on the floor of the Assembly. Each proposal to the Dark Assembly costs "mana", which is built over time by individual characters as they defeat enemies in combat. The amount of mana gained depends on the enemy's level.
Item World
Laharl's party may also enter the Item World from the castle, going inside an item in their inventory in order to increase its attributes. The world associated with an item contains up to 100 randomly generated levels. Inside the Item World, monsters called Specialists raise the statistics of the item they are in when defeated. Often, the maps are full of Geo Symbols. |
1794_9 | Each floor has a gate, a special map square that can be used to go to the next level in the Item World. However, a monster with the unique class "Gate Keeper" will sometimes block the gate. The Gate Keeper must be defeated or forced to move to use the gate and progress through the Item World. Defeating every monster on the map can also allow the player to progress.
Every ten levels has an item boss. The strongest of each type of weapon and the three ultimate items each contain an Item God 2. Defeating these bosses also increases the attributes of the item. The Item World can only be exited at the end of every tenth level containing an Item Boss, or at any other time by using an item called 'Mr. Gency's Exit', a play on the phrase "Emergency Exit". Since many items contain stronger monsters than are ever found outside the Item World, the Item World is often the only way to acquire rare and powerful weapons. |
1794_10 | Plot
The story of Disgaea opens with Laharl rising out of an open coffin in his room. Etna, one of the castle vassals, is standing next to him, surrounded by various weapons. She explains that he has been sleeping for two years, far longer than he intended, and his father, King Krichevskoy, has died. Laharl vows to reclaim the throne, and, after consulting with Etna and his other vassals, goes to Vyers' castle. |
1794_11 | After defeating the demon Vyers, who refers to himself as the "Dark Adonis" and is renamed "Mid-Boss" by Laharl, he meets Angel Trainee Flonne. Flonne had been sent to the Netherworld by Seraph Lamington, the ruler of Celestia, to assassinate King Krichevskoy (who was already dead). Shocked by Laharl's lack of grief at his father's death, the eternally optimistic Flonne joins Laharl's party to determine if demons are capable of feeling love. Observing them in secret is the paranoid Archangel Vulcanus, who interprets Flonne's actions as treason and is convinced that she is plotting against him. |
1794_12 | After Etna demands that Laharl pay the salary of the Prinnies that she has hired, he decides to attack the demon with the most money in the vicinity. This is Hoggmeiser at Dinero Palace. After defeating Hoggmeiser, Laharl is about to kill him, until Hoggmeiser's son rushes out and gets in the way. Flonne convinces Laharl to spare them, and Laharl lets them keep some of the money. In response to this act, Hoggmeiser joins the party.
At one point, Flonne and Etna discover a photograph of Laharl in an embarrassing situation. Laharl refers to this as a "paparazzi shot", however, the actual contents of the photo are never actually revealed. A threat on the back of the photograph states that copies of it would be distributed if Laharl did not accept a challenge to fight for the overlordship; thus Laharl was blackmailed. |
1794_13 | Responding to this challenge, Laharl meets Maderas, a vampire. He was banished by King Krichevskoy, for stealing the King's favorite snack, black pretzels. Maderas takes advantage of Laharl's two biggest weaknesses – optimism and women with sexy bodies. Maderas was also controlling Etna by holding her memory. He had instructed her to kill the prince, but she had put him to sleep for two years by poisoning him instead. Etna eventually betrays Maderas, and along with Laharl, Flonne, and Mid-Boss, defeats him.
Waking up later at night, Flonne discovers that several Prinnies are chanting and leaving the castle. Laharl, worried that his reputation will be tarnished if it is discovered that he let his vassals escape, chases after them the next morning. Eventually, he runs into Death, and the player learns that Big Sis Prinny is actually Laharl's mother; she became a Prinny because she gave her life to save him. |
1794_14 | After Laharl becomes the undisputed Overlord of the Netherworld, he meets a group of humans from Earth: Gordon, Defender of Earth; Jennifer, his assistant; and the robot Thursday. Gordon has been led to believe that his mission is to assassinate Laharl due to an impending attack on Earth by the Netherworld. Laharl promises not to invade Earth if Gordon defeats him, on the condition that Gordon becomes one of his vassals if he wins; Gordon is embarrassed by his ensuing loss and servitude. After the Earth Defense Force appears in the Netherworld, it is revealed that Gordon was actually sent to secure a path for an invasion of the Netherworld by the humans, who had been tricked by Vulcanus. |
1794_15 | General Carter sends Kurtis to the Netherworld, and eventually goes there himself on the Space Battleship Gargantua. Kurtis abducts Jennifer, and Laharl engages the EDF fleet of spaceships in a rescue attempt, destroying all but the Gargantua by himself. When Laharl and his party arrive at the Gargantua's bridge, several angels from Celestia appear and attack them. After being defeated, General Carter escapes, only to have Mid-Boss appear to give him a message. |
1794_16 | In response to this turn of events, Flonne and the rest of the party decide to go to Celestia to confront the Seraph. Vulcanus goes to Seraph Lamington, declares that Flonne is a traitor who is leading an army of demons in an invasion of Celestia, and goes to lead a group of angels to repel this "invasion". Vulcanus reveals to Laharl and his party that he intends to conquer all three worlds and rule over them as a god. After defeating Vulcanus, Laharl finally meets the Seraph and Flonne explains Vulcanus' plan and what she has learnt while travelling with Laharl. The Seraph accepts her version of events and agrees that demons are, in fact, capable of feeling love. However, he declares that Flonne must be punished because she fought against other angels, and turns her into a flower. Outraged at this injustice, Laharl attacks the Seraph, initiating the game's final battle. |
1794_17 | The game has multiple endings. Depending on the way the game was played up to this point, the Seraph may or may not survive, Flonne either remains a flower, is restored to her original form, or is transformed into a Fallen Angel, and Laharl either becomes a great Overlord, disappears and leaves Etna in charge of the Netherworld, or dies and becomes a Prinny. It may also be noted that, on the Good Ending, when the spirit of Laharl's mother appears to him, Vyers appears to already know her, and the way he talks to Laharl suggests that he is King Krichevskoy. |
1794_18 | There is one "Joke" ending, which can be obtained very early in the game, in Episode 1, if the final boss of the chapter defeats all of the characters in battle, a cutscene will play showing Vyers naming himself Overlord before the ending credits roll. After the ending credits, like with all endings, the game will ask you to save previous data and the player will then be sent to the main menu, where the player can reload the saved data and start a new game +, referred to in-game as a New Cycle. |
1794_19 | Characters
is the son of King Krichevskoy, who plans on becoming overlord after his father's death. He is incredibly arrogant, and he always tries to prove that he is the strongest demon in the Netherworld. He becomes physically sick when hearing optimistic sayings, especially "love", and when he sees attractive women.
is the leader of the Prinny squad, and one of the few vassals who remain in the Overlord's Castle after King Krichevskoy's death. She serves Laharl, though in a very sarcastic and insincere manner. However, she slowly changes her attitude after Laharl spares her in spite of her betrayal, and becomes more loyal to him (she finally accepts Laharl as an Overlord after he helps a young demon to find his pets), even though she retains her sarcastic nature. She is very abusive toward the Prinny Squad, often using excessive violence and fear to keep them in line. |
1794_20 | is an Angel Trainee sent on a mission to assassinate Overlord Krichevskoy. After learning that her target is already deceased, she becomes determined to follow Laharl and determine if demons truly are incapable of love. She is very innocent and naive, though she is deeply devoted to Lamington and the concept of spreading love to others. She is obsessed with tokusatsu series
is the 37th Defender of Earth, sent to the Netherworld to stop a potential invasion. Gordon has a great sense of justice, but is dim-witted. He is also blind to the true intentions of others, and never realizes when he's being tricked until it's too late. However, his sense of justice constantly motivates him even in the darkest hours. |
1794_21 | is Gordon's beautiful sidekick. Jennifer is a rather attractive woman, and she often jokes around in a very flirtatious manner. Her intelligence and technical knowledge surpasses most scientists, having created a fully functioning robot at the age of five and earned her Ph.D. (according to The World of Disgaea, she obtained all possible Ph.D.s) at the age of ten. Disgaea 3 mentions that Jennifer had solved the BSD Conjecture, a supposedly unsolvable theory, when she was six years old. She is also skilled at martial arts, specifically kung fu.
is an "All Purpose Robot" (physically resembling Robby the Robot) created by Jennifer. He is very focused on bringing about justice, even to the point of breaking down. He also seems to be very calm when dealing with various obstacles and can be very sarcastic at times. Thursday usually begins or ends his sentences with 'blip beep'. |
1794_22 | is from Earth, and he views himself as more worthy of the title of Defender of Earth than Gordon. After a traumatic experience that cost him over 70% of his body in addition to his wife and daughter, he becomes a cyborg. He later changes his mind about Gordon, and sacrifices himself to save him. He returns as a green Prinny with cybernetic parts in heaven, and continues to protect Earth in that form.
is a flamboyant demon interested in becoming overlord of the Netherworld. He has the self-given title of , though Laharl deems him unworthy of the title, and compares him to a mid boss, calling him for the rest of the game, much to Vyers' dissatisfaction. He speaks in a cultured tone, and incorporates multiple French words into his speech. Vyers tends to be very conceited and overly confident in his own abilities. He sees Laharl as a rival, though Laharl doesn't return the sentiment. |
1794_23 | is the leader of Celestia. He is very mature and calm, and he never raises his voice or harbors any vindictive thoughts or emotions. He willingly performs evil and underhanded actions, and he is willing to allow fate to punish him.
is a full-fledged angel of Celestia, and he is an archangel, who serves Seraph Lamington as the second-in-command. His ideals and methods are much more extreme compared to others, and he has a hot temper that differs from other Angels. He holds demons in contempt and believes that humans are too stupid to live without the guidance of angels.
is the adoptive father of Jennifer and the acting leader of Earth. Under the guidance of Archangel Vulcanus, he sends Gordon, Jennifer, and Thursday to act as a beacon for the Earth forces to invade the Netherworld for colonization. Despite his good intentions for Earth, Carter is willing to sacrifice many lives to achieve his goals. |
1794_24 | is a pink Prinny, who acts as a mother-figure to others. She does not speak like other Prinnies, notably leaving out the word "dood."
is the former vassal of Krichevskoy. Upon Krichevskoy's death, Hoggmeiser steals huge amounts of treasure from the Overlord's castle, and builds his own mansion with that fortune. He has a son named Porkmeister.
is a vassal of Krichevskoy, who is exiled after stealing Krichevskoy's black pretzels. Maderas is one of the many demons competing for the throne. He uses memories stolen from Etna to force her to work for him.
is a legendary overlord sealed by King Krichevskoy a number of years before the start of the storyline. Known as the Lord of Terror, he is a large demon that uses large swords to attack. After being defeated, he is reincarnated as an "Uber Prinny", which only growls and causes explosions with every attack. |
1794_25 | Development
Disgaea's North American release allows the player to select either English or Japanese for the audio and soundtrack. The song "The Invasion From Within" by Tsunami Bomb was licensed for the English audio track by Atlus due to its organ opening and fast pace, and is only played when English is the selected language. The option to select the language is not present in the European release of the game, because the European release used a lower capacity storage medium (CD instead of DVD). |
1794_26 | Souhei Niikawa and Yoshitsuna Kobayashi, the game's producer and main programmer, have explained the intended humor of Disgaea; they give the example of Captain Gordon being a satire of American comic book characters. Episodes of the game are separated by previews, parodying such previews at the end of anime series episodes. Most of these have voice-overs by Etna and do not accurately reflect the plot of the next episode; one of the characters calls these previews Etna's fantasies. The game is also filled with Prinnies, penguin-like creatures that explode when thrown. More information on their origins is revealed as the game progresses – they contain human souls and labor in the Netherworld and Celestia to atone for their sins. Character designer Takehito Harada described the prinny design as becoming less realistic as development continued. |
1794_27 | The makers of Disgaea have responded that characters represented by 3-D models in other games are often limited by a "set pattern of motions", and they were able to make the characters of Disgaea more expressive with sprites.
There were two different styles of boxart for the American release.
Reception and awards |
1794_28 | In the PS2 category of IGN's The Best of 2003 awards, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness won "Best Game No One Played", and won Reader's Choice and runner-up awards for "Best Strategy Game". Hyper'''s Daniel Wilks commends Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness for its "brilliant strategy and being huge and funny". The game received a score of 8.5/8/7.5 from Electronic Gaming Monthly, and the magazine's Shane Bettenhausen said, "Here's an instant cult classic—Disgaea is so creative, challenging, and funny that it totally deserves the attention of RPG gamers". However, he noted that its "rewarding gameplay and quirky humor beneath a coating of antiquated visual grime. There isn't much here that couldn't have been done on PS1".
In the PS2 category of GameSpy's Game of the Year awards, it ranked ninth out of ten, and won "Strategy Game of the Year". |
1794_29 | Being the first game set in the Disgaea universe, its success has launched a franchise that has seen five sequels, several spin-offs, and adaptations into other media. See Disgaea.
Re-releases
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness |
1794_30 | A port for the PlayStation Portable named was released in Japan on November 30, 2006. It was later released in North America on October 30, 2007 under the name Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.Afternoon of Darkness features extras over the original, such as a 16:9 format to take advantage of the PSP's widescreen display. There is also a mode that focuses on Etna as the main character. In Etna Mode, Etna kills Laharl by accident while trying to wake him in the beginning of the game and thus becomes the main character. There are some extra boss battles such as Overlord Zetta from Makai Kingdom and Rozalin and Adell from Disgaea 2. There is, for the first time, a multiplayer mode available through Ad-hoc connections. This features multiple modes such as a "Defeat the Leader," "Capture the Flag," and the original "Battle." In the Multiplayer mode, each player also has access to "Geo Cubes" which give different effects to the battlefield. Other new additions include a music shop, which |
1794_31 | allows the player to listen to the game's various songs and even change the Item World theme, and a record keeper, which keeps track of various bits of information such as ally kills and obtained items. |
1794_32 | In addition, Afternoon of Darkness includes a complete dual language option and the option to turn off battle animations. Most of the silent Japanese cut scenes now include voice acting. However, when set to English, the scenes that were originally silent in the PS2 release are still silent. To reflect Etna's recent voice actor change, her lines have been re-recorded to match Michelle Ruff's portrayal of Etna in Disgaea 2 and the anime. One notable omission is the theme song "The Invasion from Within" by Tsunami Bomb. As Atlus was the publisher of the original PS2 version and arranged for the licensing of the song, and NIS America (Nippon Ichi's American branch) published the PSP port themselves, they did not retain the rights to use the song and did not renegotiate for them. Also missing is the song "One With the Stars" which, like "The Invasion from Within", was added in the original PS2 release by Atlus.
Disgaea DS |
1794_33 | On March 5, 2008, Weekly Famitsu reported an official announcement of for the Nintendo DS.
On March 7, NIS America released a statement on the North American release of a new edition of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness for the Nintendo DS titled Disgaea DS. The game would be a port of the PSP version, and would include multiplayer gameplay and Etna Mode. In order to fully utilize the Nintendo DS' capabilities, several key improvements will be made to the user interface and game system. However, many features from the PSP edition were dropped, including the option to toggle between English and Japanese dialogue, and many additional voiceovers, probably due to the limited storage capacity of the DS game card. Disgaea DS was the only Disgaea game released for a Nintendo system (and until the release of Disgaea PC, the only release on a non-Sony platform), until the release of Disgaea 5 Complete for the Nintendo Switch in 2017, 9 years after Disgaea DS's release. |
1794_34 | The Nintendo DS version contains the following additional features:
Geo Cubes – A new addition first found in the PSP version, Geo Cubes are magic items that add more depth to multiplayer battles. They can be used to enhance abilities, summon monsters, or to attack the enemies.
Demon Gadgets – Randomly generated items that appear on the battlefield. Units can power up by acquiring these gadgets. Some demon gadgets can level up a unit by 30 levels at once.
Unlockable Characters – As well as the unlockable characters from the original Disgaea, Adell and Rozalin from Disgaea 2 are unlockable as hidden bosses within the Cave of Ordeals, as well as the Dark Assembly guide, Pleinair. Overlord Zetta also debuts as an unlockable, playable character.Disgaea DS was released in North America on September 23, 2008, through distributor NIS America and in Europe on April 3, 2009.
Disgaea PC |
1794_35 | A version of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, including the added content in Afternoon of Darkness, was released for Microsoft Windows via Steam on February 24, 2016, retitled as Disgaea PC. The initial release was panned by critics on launch due to its many bugs, which included persistent crashes, save file loss, and poor performance, even on high-end PCs. A patch was released soon afterwards that fixed many of the bugs. Another patch was released for the game later that added the four characters previously exclusive to Disgaea DS. Players who bought the game during the 2016 Steam Summer Sale would also earn free in-game cosmetic items for Valve’s first person shooter game Team Fortress 2.
Disgaea 1 Complete |
1794_36 | A version of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, including the added content in Afternoon of Darkness and Disgaea PC, was released for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on October 9, 2018, retitled as Disgaea 1 Complete. Some elements of the game were updated, including adding new higher resolution sprites in the same style as Disgaea 5, changing character art images with the Disgaea 5 artstyle, as well as retroactively replacing some generic humanoid and monster classes that did not appear since Disgaea: Hour of Darkness with classes that do appear in later games in the series.
References
Notes
Footnotes
Notations |
1794_37 | Bettenhausen, Shane (Oct 1, 2003). Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Electronic Gaming Monthly''.
GameFly, Inc. (Sep 29, 2003). GameFly offers a weekly 'Top Ten' list of its most popular video games. Press Release.
Lindquist, Tim (2003). Disgaea: Hour of Darkness – The Official Strategy Guide – Special PDF Free Edition. DoubleJump Publishing, Inc. .). Retrieved Jan 30, 2005.
PlayStation.com Staff (April 23, 2004). ''Disgaea'''s Creators Explain It All. Retrieved Feb 2, 2005.
External links
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness at Giant Bomb
Official ATLUS Disgaea Site features some Macromedia Flash animation.
Official Disgaea Website at Nippon Ichi Software
; includes English voice actors.
Tsunami Bomb; Creators of 'The Invasion From Within', the featured song in English versions of Disgaea. |
1794_38 | 2003 video games
Atlus games
Dengeki Bunko
Disgaea
Fantasy video games
Koei games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Nintendo DS games
Nintendo Switch games
Nippon Ichi Software games
PlayStation 2 games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation Network games
PlayStation Portable games
Square Enix games
Tactical role-playing video games
Video games about demons
Video games developed in Japan
Video games scored by Tenpei Sato
Windows games
Works set in castles |
1795_0 | Identifying unidentified flying objects is a difficult task due to the normally poor quality of the evidence provided by those who report sighting the unknown object. Observations and subsequent reporting are often made by those untrained in astronomy, atmospheric phenomena, aeronautics, physics, and perception. Nevertheless, most officially investigated UFO sightings, such as from the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book, have been identified as being due to honest misidentifications of natural phenomena, aircraft, or other prosaic explanations. In early U.S. Air Force attempts to explain UFO sightings, unexplained sightings routinely numbered over one in five reports. However, in early 1953, right after the CIA's Robertson Panel, percentages of unexplained sightings dropped precipitously, usually being only a few percent in any given year. When Project Blue Book closed down in 1970, only 6% of all cases were classified as being truly unidentified. |
1795_1 | UFOs that can be explained are sometimes termed "IFOs" or Identified Flying Objects.
UFO studies
The following are some major studies undertaken during the past 70+ years that reported on identification of UFOs:
Project Sign
Project Sign lists that "in order to investigate the credibility of their existence the following factors must be considered in any technical analysis":<ref>https://archive.org/details/ProjectSIGN</rorce)</ref>
Method of support (lift)
1. Wings
2. Fuselage lift (Wingless)
3. Rotor
4. Vertical Jet
5. Magnus effect
6. Aerostatic (lighter-than-air craft)
Method of propulsion (thrust) |
1795_2 | 1. Propeller reciprocating engine combination jet
2. Rocket
3. Ramjet
4. Aerodynamic (for example, the Katzmayer effect, defined as "the reduction in drag of an airfoil when an air stream is oscillating").
Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (referred to further below as BBSR) was a massive statistical study the Battelle Memorial Institute did for the USAF of 3,200 UFO cases between 1952 and 1954. Of these, 22% were classified as unidentified (“true UFOs”). Another 69% were deemed identified (IFOs). There was insufficient information to make a determination in the remaining 9%.
The official French government UFO investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA), run within the French space agency CNES between 1977 and 2004, scientifically investigated about 6000 cases and found that 13% defied any rational explanation (UFOs), while 46% were deemed readily identifiable and 41%, lacked sufficient information for classification. |
1795_3 | The USAF-sponsored Condon Committee study reported that all 117 cases studied were or could probably be explained. A 1971 review of the results by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics concluded that 30% of the 117 cases remained unexplained.
Of about 5,000 cases submitted to and studied by the civilian UFO organization NICAP, 16% were judged unknowns. |
1795_4 | The Pentagon UFO Report, (or colloquially known as the Pentagon UFO Report) is a United States federally mandated assessment summarizing information regarding unidentified flying objects (UFOs), also known as unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAPs). On June 25, 2021, a nine-page preliminary assessment was issued. It states that the UAPTF focused on 144 observations of "unidentified aerial phenomena" by the U.S Armed Forces, mostly from U.S. Navy personnel, from 2004 to 2021. No details are given in the preliminary assessment. The report found that the UAPTF was unable to identify 143 of these objects, but it included five categories of potential explanations; "Airborne Clutter" includes objects like birds and balloons, "Natural Atmospheric Phenomena" includes atmospheric effect like ice crystals, "USG or Industry Developmental Programs" includes US military technology, "Foreign Adversary Systems" includes technologies developed by foreign governments such as Russia or China, and |
1795_5 | "Other", described as a "catchall" for other explanations. |
1795_6 | In contrast, much more conservative numbers for the percentage of UFOs were arrived at individually by astronomer Allan Hendry, who was the chief investigator for the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). CUFOS was founded by astronomer J. Allen Hynek (who had been a consultant for the Air Force's Project Blue Book) to provide a serious scientific investigation into UFOs. Hendry spent 15 months personally investigating 1,307 UFO reports. In 1979, Hendry published his conclusions in The UFO Handbook: A Guide to Investigating, Evaluating, and Reporting UFO Sightings. Hendry admitted that he would like to find evidence for extraterrestrials but noted that the vast majority of cases had prosaic explanations. He found 89% of reports definitely or probably identifiable and only 9% unidentified. “Hardcore” cases—well-documented events which defied any conceivable conventional explanation—made up only 1.5% of the reports. |
1795_7 | Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14
Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 was compiled between 1951 and 1954, and included 3201 reported UFO sightings. Battelle employed four scientific analysts, who sought to divide cases into "knowns", "unknowns", and a third category of "insufficient information." They also broke down knowns and unknowns into four categories of quality, from excellent to poor. In order for a case to be deemed "identified", two analysts had to independently agree on a solution and for a case to be called "unidentified", all four analysts had to agree. A report classified as "unidentified" was defined as: "Those reports of sightings wherein the description of the object and its maneuvers could not be fitted to the pattern of any known object or phenomenon."
Out of 3,201 cases, 69% were judged to be identified, 22% were unidentified, and 9% had insufficient information to make a determination.
Breakdown by category of IFO and case quality |
1795_8 | BBSR further broke these results down based on whether the identification was considered certain or merely doubtful. For example, in both the astronomical and aircraft IFO categories, 12% were considered certain and 9% were doubtful. Overall, of the 69% listed as IFOs, 42% were thought to be solved with certainty, while 27% were still considered doubtful.
In addition, if a case was lacking in adequate data, it was placed in the insufficient information category, separate from both IFOs and UFOs.
Military vs. civilian breakdown
The Battelle BBSR study included many internal military reports; 38% of the cases were designated as military. Military witnesses tended to submit better quality reports, had much fewer reports rated as having insufficient information, and had higher percentages of unknowns. As in the previous breakdown, the percentage of UFOs again rose with case quality for both the military and civilian subcategories. |
1795_9 | In the summary table, best reports are those rated excellent and good; worst reports are doubtful and poor.
Comparison of IFOs to UFOs by characteristics
A key study of BBSR was to statistically compare IFOs and UFOs by six characteristics: color, number of objects, shape, duration of observations, speed, and light brightness. If there were no significant differences, the two classes were probably the same, the UFOs then representing merely a failure to properly identify prosaic phenomena that could already account for the IFOs. On the other hand, if the differences were statistically significant, this would suggest IFOs and UFOs were indeed distinctly different phenomena. |
1795_10 | In the initial results, all characteristics except brightness tested significant at less or much less than 1% (brightness was greater than 5%). By removing "astronomical" sightings from the "knowns" and redoing the test, just two categories, number and speed, were significant at less than 1%, the remainder having results between 3% and 5%. This indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the characteristics ascribed to UFOs and IFOs, but perhaps not as significant as the initial results suggested. For two characteristics, brightness and speed, the significance actually increased with the revised test.
Allan Hendry study
Like the Air Force, astronomer Allan Hendry found that only a small percentage of cases were hoaxes and that most sightings were actually honest misidentifications of prosaic phenomena. Hendry attributed most of these to inexperience or misperception. |
1795_11 | Out of 1,307 cases Hendry deemed 88.6% had clear prosaic explanations (IFOs) and only 8.6% were unknowns (UFOs). Of the UFOs, Hendry reported that 7.1%, might still have a prosaic explanation while 1.5% (20 cases) had no possible plausible explanation and were completely unexplained. The remaining miscellaneous cases (2.8%) were “garbage” cases, where Hendry deemed the witnesses unreliable, the reports hopelessly contradictory, or lacking in sufficient information.
Overall, in the three major categories, 42% of all cases had astronomical explanations, 37% were aircraft, and 5% were balloons. A further breakdown allowed 77% to be readily explained by five main classes of objects: 29% were bright stars or planets, 19% were advertising planes, 15% were other aircraft, 9% were meteors and reentering space debris, and 5% were balloons of various types (mostly weather or advertising balloons but also a few prank balloons). |
1795_12 | Breakdown of cases
Hendry also used a case classification system developed by his mentor J. Allen Hynek, who established CUFOS, where the study was carried out. In this summary table:
NL = “Nocturnal Lights”, lights seen in the sky at night.
DD = “Daylight Discs”, objects seen in daytime (but not necessarily disc in shape).
RV = “Radar/Visual” cases, objects observed by both witnesses and radar.
CE = “Close Encounter” cases. For convenience, CE cases listed below are combined totals of Hynek's CE1, CE2, and CE3 cases, where:
CE1 cases where objects were thought to be seen up close (within 500 feet).
CE2 had purported physical interactions with the environment (physical trace cases or electromagnetic interference).
CE3 cases were supposed to involve sightings of occupants. |
1795_13 | Common causes of misidentification and UFOs
Both BBSR and Hendry found that three classes of objects or phenomena—astronomical, aircraft, or balloons—accounted for a large majority of identifiable UFO reports (referred to as IFOs), 86% and 83% in the two studies. For example, in Hendry's study, bright stars and planets made up 29% of all cases while meteors (and to a much lesser extent, re-entering space debris) made up 9%. Hovering aircraft such as helicopters or blimps, or aircraft that appear to be hovering, such as airplanes seen at night from the front with their headlights on as they approach for landing can often confuse witnesses, as can aircraft strobe lights. BBSR reported a much higher percentage of balloons than Hendry. |
1795_14 | Claims of misidentification are after-the-fact analyses, not direct observations, and are often misconstrued by skeptics and UFO advocates alike: They do not suggest that the experiences did not exist, but merely that they can be explained by prosaic causes. For instance, retrospective analyses of the Jimmy Carter UFO incident of 1969 connect the sighting with the known position of the planet Venus for that time, date, and location. Gordon Cooper, a strong advocate of the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), claimed to have been fooled by the planet Venus when he was a fighter pilot, thinking it a distant enemy plane, and the 1967 "flying cross" of Devon, England and the 1966 Portage County UFO Chase case have both been associated with astronomical sources.
In 2009, Peter Davenport, Director of the National UFO Reporting Center, posted this complaint online:
There are several natural and man-made objects that are commonly suggested as explanations for UFO sightings: |
1795_15 | Venus
With the exception of the sun, moon and the International Space Station, Venus is the brightest object in the sky and is often visible in the early morning and evening sky. Even experienced witnesses, especially when they are in unfamiliar surroundings or unusual atmospheric conditions, can fail to identify Venus correctly; however, the location of Venus is easily calculable, and professional astronomers have said that many of the UFO reports received from concerned citizens are due to observations of Venus. Astronomer Phil Plait, in particular, has suggested that Venus is responsible for the majority of all UFO reports |
1795_16 | Meteors
The brightest meteors known as bolides are long lasting fireballs that leave a trail in the sky which can be visible for up to an hour after passing. Such events are relatively rare but can be witnessed by a large area of the Earth since most events occur kilometers up in the atmosphere. Those witnessing such events who are not familiar with meteors can be easily fooled into thinking that the meteor is a UFO. Because meteors are not predictable with the same degree of accuracy as planets, stars, or man-made objects such as satellites, these occurrences are more difficult to prove in retrospect, though UFO sightings during meteor showers, or where there are astronomical reports of bolides, are likely to be explained as such.
Balloons, aircraft, satellites and other man-made objects
Many reports capture conventional, man-made objects. A Skyhook balloon has been postulated as an explanation for the Mantell UFO Incident, which led to the death of Captain Thomas Mantell. |
1795_17 | Project Loon was a Google secret effort to bring internet services to isolated areas. Test balloons of different shapes were used and reported as UFOs. The Google Project Manager stated in an article in Wired Magazine that the team used UFO reports to track the balloons progress for one of the launches.
Aircraft shapes have radically changed as we continue to develop stealth technologies. These new test designs appear unusual and cause reports. The CIA released a report indicating that many UFO reports in the 1950s were classified aircraft like the SR-71 and U-2.
The increase in civilian drone usage and popularity throughout the 2010s may be moving identification of objects away from UFOs and towards drones.
Lenticular clouds
These stationary cloud formations often appear above mountains, but can happen when winds and "eddies" help shape clouds into lens shaped clouds and people see these as "flying saucers". |
1795_18 | Misperception
Light distortion from air turbulence can cause celestial bodies to move to a limited degree as can a visual perceptual effect called the autokinetic effect, caused by small, involuntary eye movements after staring at a star-like light against a black background without a frame of reference. To some observers, these may cause stars and planets to appear to start and stop, change direction, or dart around. Hendry and other UFO skeptics attribute complex patterns of apparent motion in UFO reports to the autokinetic effect. Its opposite, autostasis is one of the causes as well.
Another type of misperceived motion sometimes occurs when people are driving in a vehicle. Witnesses may believe the “UFO” was following them even though the celestial body was actually stationary. Even police and other normally reliable witnesses can occasionally be fooled by sightings of bright stars and planets. |
1795_19 | In about 10% of Hendry's cases caused by celestial bodies, witnesses greatly underestimated distances to the objects, giving distance estimates ranging from 200 feet to 125 miles (60 m to 200 km).
According to Hendry, moving clouds may also sometimes confuse observers by creating induced motion. Hendry believes this occasionally makes observers also believe objects have suddenly disappeared or make a rapid departure.
Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana is a type of mirage responsible for some UFO sightings, by making objects located below the astronomical horizon appear to be hovering in the sky. It also magnifies images and makes them look unrecognizable.
The UFOs seen on radar can also be due to Fata Morgana, since water vapor in the air can create radar mirages more readily than temperature inversions can create optical mirages. According to GEPAN/SEPRA, the official UFO investigation in France, |
1795_20 | Other misidentifications
The BBSR and Hendry studies identified as rare causes for UFO reports based on misidentification, such objects and phenomena as birds, light phenomena (including mirages, moondogs, sundogs, auroras, ground lights such as street lights, and searchlights reflected off of clouds), and atmospheric phenomena such as clouds, dust and fog (including unusual cloud formations such as lenticular clouds, noctilucent clouds, rainbow effects, and high-altitude ice crystals). Other identified causes included kites, flares, reflections off windows, and windborne debris.
Upper atmospheric lightning
More recently, Professor Colin Price head of the Geophysics and Planetary Sciences Department at Tel Aviv University has commented that occurrences of upper-atmospheric lightning such as sprites, elves and blue jets could account for some of the strange reports of UFO sightings.
Electronic Warfare |
1795_21 | According to New York Magazine writer for the Digital Intelligencer, Jeff Wise, advanced Electronic Warfare techniques similar to early "radar spoofing" used by the US military could deceive sensors to give false velocity and position information. Wise worries that US adversaries have developed EW capabilities that exploit weaknesses in US systems that allow information to be missed or created erroneously. Wise speculates that admitting the US has "gaps in its electronic warfare capabilities" would allow it to be looked at objectively. As Navy Spokesman Joseph Gradisher puts it, "The more data you have, the better you are to analyze it and turn that data into information into knowledge.” |
1795_22 | According to Forbes contributor David Hambling, the U.S. Navy has filed patents for technology to produce a "self-focusing laser pulse to create a glowing filament or channel of plasma" that could create "mid-air images to fool infrared and other sensors". Hambling speculates that such technology "may also provide a clue about the source of some recent UFO sightings by military aircraft".
Psychological
Greg Eghigian writing for the Smithsonian Magazine suggests that, as technology has evolved, so has the nature of the UFO phenomenon. According to Eghigian, "fears of Zeppelins, rockets and drones have replaced the “celestial wonders” of ancient times", and "affairs here on earth have consistently colored our perceptions of what is going on over our heads".
According to sociologist David L. Miller, experts such as Neil Smelser and Orrin Klapp attribute many UFO sightings to social contagion or mass hysteria, and as an overall cause of the UFO phenomenon.
References |
1795_23 | Allan Hendry, The UFO Handbook: A Guide to Investigating, Evaluating, and Reporting UFO Sightings, 1979, Doubleday & Co.,
Philip Plait, Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax", 2002 John Wiley & Sons, . (Chapter 20: Misidentified Flying Objects: UFOs and Illusions of the Mind and Eye)
Carl Sagan & Thornton Page, editors, UFO's: A Scientific Debate, 1972, Cornell University Press, 1996, Barnes & Noble Books,
External links
Astronomical Causes of UFOs (Ian Ridpath)
UFO misidentifications list and link
IFO cases caused by stratospheric balloons
Common IFO Phenomenon (Robert Moore)
Text of UFO STUDY Part 1 (UFO Investigation), gives detailed description of various IFO types (Jenny Randles)
Google's quest to bring internet (Steven Levy)
Ufology
Unidentified flying objects |
1796_0 | The French 75 mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze (French for "seventy-five"). The French 75 was designed as an anti-personnel weapon system for delivering large volumes of time-fused shrapnel shells on enemy troops advancing in the open. After 1915 and the onset of trench warfare, other types of battlefield use demanding impact-detonated high-explosive shells prevailed. By 1918 the 75s became the main agents of delivery for toxic gas shells. The 75s also became widely used as truck mounted anti-aircraft artillery. They were the main armament of the Saint-Chamond tank in 1918. |
1796_1 | The French 75 is widely regarded as the first modern artillery piece. It was the first field gun to include a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism, which kept the gun's trail and wheels perfectly still during the firing sequence. Since it did not need to be re-aimed after each shot, the crew could reload and fire as soon as the barrel returned to its resting position. In typical use the French 75 could deliver fifteen rounds per minute on its target, either shrapnel or melinite high-explosive, up to about away. Its firing rate could even reach close to 30 rounds per minute, albeit only for a very short time and with a highly experienced crew. |
1796_2 | At the opening of World War I, in 1914, the French Army had about 4,000 of these field guns in service. By the end of the war about 12,000 had been produced. It was also in service with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), which had been supplied with about 2,000 French 75 field guns. Several thousand were still in use in the French Army at the opening of World War II, updated with new wheels and tires to allow towing by trucks rather than by horses. The French 75 set the pattern for almost all early-20th century field pieces, with guns of mostly 75 mm forming the basis of many field artillery units into the early stages of World War II.
Development
The forerunner of the French 75 was an experimental 57 mm gun which was first assembled in September 1891 at the Bourges arsenal under the direction of a Captain Sainte-Claire Deville. This 57 mm gun took advantage of a number of the most advanced artillery technologies available at the time: |
1796_3 | 1) Vieille's smokeless powder, which was introduced in 1884.
2) Self-contained ammunition, with the powder charge in a brass case which also held the shell.
3) An early hydro-pneumatic short recoil mechanism that was designed by Major Louis Baquet.
4) A rotating screw breech built under license from Thorsten Nordenfelt.
The only major design difference between the 57 and 75 that would emerge was the recoil system. But even before the 57 entered testing, in 1890 General Mathieu, Director of Artillery at the Ministry of War, had been informed that Konrad Haussner, a German engineer working at the Ingolstadt arsenal, had patented an oil-and-compressed-air long-recoil system. They also learned that Krupp was considering introducing the system after testing it. Krupp would later reject Haussner's invention, due to insoluble technical problems caused by hydraulic fluid leakage. |
1796_4 | In 1891 Haussner sold his patents to a firm named Gruson, which searched for potential buyers. After reviewing the blueprints in February 1892, the French artillery engineers advised that a gun should be produced without purchasing the Haussner invention. Accordingly, General Mathieu turned to Lt. Colonel Joseph-Albert Deport, at the time the Director of the Atelier de Construction de Puteaux (APX), and asked him whether he could construct a gun on the general principle of the Haussner long-cylinder recoil without infringing the existing patents. After it was judged possible, a formal request was sent out on 13 July 1892. |
1796_5 | It took five more years under the overall leadership of Mathieu's successor, General Deloye, to perfect and finally adopt in March 1898 an improved and final version of the Deport 75 mm long-recoil field gun. Various deceptions, some of them linked to the Dreyfus Case which erupted in 1894, had been implemented by Deloye and French counter-intelligence to distract German espionage.
The final experimental version of Deport's 75 mm field gun was tested during the summer of 1894 and judged very promising. Extensive trials, however, revealed that it was still prone to hydraulic fluid leakage from the long-recoil mechanism. The Deport 75 was returned to Puteaux arsenal for further improvements. Hydraulic fluid leakage was typical of this experimental phase of artillery development during the 1890s, as Haussner and Krupp had previously experienced. |
1796_6 | In December 1894, Deport was passed over for promotion, and resigned to join "Chatillon-Commentry", a private armaments firm. Two young military engineers from Ecole Polytechnique, Captains Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville and Emile Rimailho, continued development and introduced an improved version in 1896. Their contribution was a leakproof hydro-pneumatic long-recoil mechanism which they named "Frein II" (Brake # II). A major improvement was the placement of improved silver-alloy rings on the freely moving piston which separated the compressed air and the hydraulic fluid inside the main hydro-pneumatic recoil cylinder. These and other modifications achieved the desired result: the long-term retention of hydraulic fluid and compressed air inside the recoil system, even under the worst field conditions. |
1796_7 | Captain Sainte-Claire Deville also designed important additional features, such as a device for piercing the fuzes of shrapnel shells automatically during the firing sequence (an "automatic fuze-setter"), thus selecting the desired bursting distance. The independent sight had also been perfected for easy field use by the crews, and a nickel-steel shield was added to protect the gunners. The armored caissons were designed to be tilted in order to present the shells horizontally to the crews. The wheel brakes could be swung under each wheel ("abattage"), and, together with the trail spade, they immobilized the gun during firing.
The gun was officially adopted on 28 March 1898 under the name "Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897". The public saw it for the first time during the Bastille Day parade of 14 July 1899.
Hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism |
1796_8 | The gun's barrel slid back on rollers, including a set at the muzzle, when the shot was fired. The barrel was attached near the breech to a piston rod extending into an oil-filled cylinder placed just underneath the gun. When the barrel recoiled, the piston was pulled back by the barrel's recoil and thus pushed the oil through a small orifice and into a second cylinder placed underneath. That second cylinder contained a freely floating piston which separated the surging oil from a confined volume of compressed air. During the barrel's recoil the floating piston was forced forward by the oil, compressing the air even further. This action absorbed the recoil progressively as the internal air pressure rose and, at the end of recoil, generated a strong but decreasing back pressure that returned the gun forward to its original position. The smoothness of this system had no equal in 1897, and for at least another ten years. Each recoil cycle on the French 75, including the return forward, |
1796_9 | lasted about two seconds, permitting a maximum attainable firing rate of about 30 rounds per minute. |
1796_10 | Ammunition
At the beginning in 1914, the French 75 fired two main types of shells, both with high muzzle velocities (535 m/s for the shrapnel shell ) and a maximum range of 8,500 meters. Their relatively flat trajectories extended all the way to the designated targets. French 75 shells, at least initially in 1914, were essentially anti-personnel. They had been designed for the specific purpose of inflicting maximum casualties on enemy troops stationing or advancing in the open. |
1796_11 | A impact-detonated, thin-walled steel, high-explosive (HE) shell with a time-delay fuze. It was filled with picric acid, known in France as "Melinite", used since 1888. The delay lasted five hundredths of a second, designed to detonate the shell in the air and at a man's height after bouncing forward off the ground. These shells were particularly destructive to men's lungs when exploding in their proximity. |
1796_12 | A time-fused shrapnel shell containing 290 lead balls. The balls shot forward when the fuse's timer reached zero, ideally bursting high above the ground and enemy troops. During 1914 and 1915, the shrapnel shell was the dominant type of ammunition found in the French 75 batteries. However, by 1918, high-explosive shells had become virtually the sole type of 75mm ammunition remaining in service. Furthermore, several new shells and fuses were introduced due to the demands of trench warfare. A boat-tailed shell (with a superior ballistic coefficient) which could reach was also used during the latter part of the war. |
1796_13 | Every shell, whether it be a high-explosive or shrapnel shell, was fixed to a brass case which was ejected when the breech was manually opened. Semi-automatic breech opening and shell ejection during recoil and return had not been developed yet.
Rapid fire capability |
1796_14 | The French 75 introduced a new concept in artillery technology: rapid firing without realigning the gun after each shot. Older artillery had to be resighted after each shot in order to stay on target, and thus fired no more than two aimed shots per minute. The French 75 easily delivered fifteen aimed rounds per minute and could fire even faster for short periods of time (however, the long-term sustained rate was only 3-4 rounds per minute; more than this would overheat the barrel). This rate of fire, the gun's accuracy, and the lethality of the ammunition against personnel, made the French 75 superior to all other regimental field artillery at the time. When made ready for action, the first shot buried the trail spade and the two wheel anchors into the ground, following which all other shots were fired from a stable platform. Bringing down the wheel anchors tied to the braking system was called "abattage". The gun could not be elevated beyond eighteen degrees, unless the trail spade |
1796_15 | had been deeply dug into the ground; however, the 75 mm field gun was not designed for plunging fire. The gun could be traversed laterally 3 degrees to the sides by sliding the trail on the wheel's axle. Progressive traversing together with small changes in elevation could be carried out while continuously firing, called "fauchage" or "sweeping fire". A four-gun battery firing shrapnel could deliver 17,000 ball projectiles over an area 100 meters wide by 400 meters long in a single minute, with devastating results. Because of the gun's traversing ability, the greater the distance to the enemy concentration, the wider the area that could be swept. |
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