November 2005 Archives

Gareth Harvey Battle for the Title… In the brief but brilliant “Age of the Helicopter,” there have been many contenders for the title of “Super Copter.” The CH-47 Chinook, the UH-1 “Huey,” which transformed the very nature of warfare in Vietnam, and Eurocopter’s Ecureuil AS350, which has carried out some of the highest altitude rescues in history. But one of the newest copters that brings it all home is the EH101. Recently chosen to be the next “Marine One”—the Presidential Helicopter, the EH101, will be specially outfitted as the new Oval Office in the sky. It was a tight race with Sikorsky’s S-92, and the competition between the two copters isn’t over yet. Though the EH101 is the president’s vehicle of choice, both of these state-of-the-art flying machines are now vying for a multi-billion dollar contract to supply the U.S. Air Force with their new generation of search and rescue helicopters. Seeing From New Heights Helicopters are a monumental human achievement, a technological feat that’s become so common place we don’t blink an eye at them anymore. But National Geographic’s Explorer takes you for a ride on the EH101 to see why you might want to take a second look. In reality helicopters are among the most complex flying machines ever created. And for three weeks this past summer, we rode with the AgustaWestland EH101, and captured the most spectacular footage I’ve ever seen of helicopters in flight. On location with the British Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Navy, we quickly discovered that the EH101 – and other cutting-edge helicopters like the Sikorsky S-92 and NH Industries’ NH90 – have taken the science of rotary flight to a whole new level. What Makes Them Fly? What’s keeping them in the air? Their main rotors, for one thing. The EH101, for example, is a fusion of high-tech composite materials – including carbon fibre – built around a core of honeycomb paper and foam. But it’s more durable and more battle-worthy than an all-metal blade – like those used on the famous Hueys in the Vietnam War. Put a bullet through a composite blade and the fibres around the bullet hole remain undamaged – whereas a metal blade fractures around the impact site. Rotors are essentially ‘spinning wings’ that provide a helicopter with lift – but they also have to propel the aircraft through the air. Main rotor blades twist, flap, and move independently of each other to achieve both lift and thrust simultaneously! By using composite materials, designers of the new-generation Super Copters have far more flexibility in the shaping of rotor blades, and thus far more ‘control’ over the air they move through. The EH101 has a special ‘winged tip’ on its main rotor, which according to its pilots gives it the airborne capability of a much smaller aircraft. Life-Saving Features: No More Brown-Outs And the Royal Air Force pilots operating the EH101 in Iraq discovered a life-saving feature of its main rotor blade which even its developers hadn’t counted on. They found a solution to a pilot’s worst nightmare when flying in the desert—“brown out”—which is a dense cloud of swirling sand and dust, virtually blinding pilots as they’re trying to land. To counteract this, the EH101’s ‘winged-tip’ rotor blades create what its pilots call the “donut effect” – a circular window of clear air inside the dust storm that allows them to see the ground as they come in to land. Engines with Ten Times the Power But perhaps the most remarkable component of the new Super Copter is its state-of-the-art engine. You’d think that ‘jet powered’ helicopters achieved their forward thrust through their jet-engines – but in reality all the power generated by the jets (they’re really ‘gas-turbine engines’) goes into driving the main and tail rotors though an incredibly complex gear-assembly. The latest breed of helicopter engine, while about the same size as the internal-combustion engine of the average family car, develops about ten times the power. The secret is a metal-alloy turbine whose blades exceed their melting point as they spin – forcing air through the chambers of the engine. Each blade is a single crystal of metal, drilled by laser beams, which allows them to be encased in a sheath of air as they whirl around – preventing them from melting. The power generated by this turbine (and transferred through the engine to the rotor blades) is an incredible two thousand horsepower. It’s the sort of power that allows today’s Super Copters to hover rock-steady in high winds – a critical advantage in search and rescue operations. It’s all a long way from the Chinese-rotored flying toys – or from Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘aerial screw’, which many credit as Man’s first inspiration for what would become the ‘helicopter.’ Inventing New Rotors As with fixed-wing flight, the development of helicopters went hand-in-hand with the invention of the internal-combustion engine – light enough and yet powerful enough to lift a heavier-than-air craft off the ground. But the complexities involved in successfully creating a rotary aircraft, as opposed to one with fixed wings, were immense. The primary problem that early helicopter designers – like Igor Sikorsky, the ‘father of the helicopter’ – had to solve was how to stop the airframe from spinning around the main rotor. One solution was the use of twin rotor blades – each spinning the opposite direction. The most famous twin-rotored helicopter is probably Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook – the massive aerial workhorse of armies and air forces around the world. The invention of the tail rotor not only solved the inherent problem of rotary-winged flight, but gave the helicopter its unique manoeuvrability in the air. What became the accepted model for all modern helicopters also quickly became an indispensable tool of war, rescue, and emergency services. Today’s breed of Super Copters are on their way to marking new benchmarks in the helicopter age. Already their superior engines and rotor systems are setting new records in range and reliability – leading to some remarkable rescues and mind-boggling military strategies. Witnessing the capabilities of this new generation of helicopters, and meeting the pilots and the engineers who are making it all possible, it was like flying higher (and steadier) than Cloud Nine. It was truly the ride of our lives!

Heidi Shin and Bill Kelso In 1607, 13 years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock, just over 100 English men and boys seeking gold, profit, opportunity and adventure in the New World landed on a small island in the James River and established Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America, and what would eventually become the birthplace of the United States. What you usually hear about Jamestown are the stories of Pocahontas coming to the aid of John Smith and his starving men. What’s not so well known is that Jamestown is the birthplace of American democracy and free enterprise. Also what you don’t hear about is just what the relationship between the settlers and the Indians was really like. And rarely are questions asked about the effectiveness of John Smith’s leadership and the role of his followers—their endeavors and struggles, how they lived and died. That’s what archaeologists wanted to learn when launching the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, but they ended up unearthing much more than they had bargained for. In anticipation of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, historians and archaeologists from the APVA Preservation (Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) set out to discover, excavate and analyze the remains of the 1607 James Fort and town site. The team had expected to make new discoveries, but they didn’t expect to be floored by what they learned. Historians long-believed James Fort had been washed away by the river. But just ten years ago, in 1996, archaeologists discovered the footprints to the triangular fort still existed. The fort’s outline, including the remains of portions of the palisade walls and two bulwarks, as well as several buildings, pits and wells were all still in place. It turned out only a single corner, not the entire fort, had been eroded by the river. Continued expedition unearthed nearly a million objects, including the skeletons of nearly 80 colonists, which tell us more about life at James Fort. These remains now constitute one of the largest collections of Early American Colonial artifacts in the world. As archaeologists dug away little did they know that the most exciting discovery was still yet to come. The discovery of a grave—which evidence strongly suggested contained the remains of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, the principal organizer and administrator of the early Jamestown effort. But how could this be proven for certain? Dr. Bill Kelso, APVA’s archaeological director, was determined to find out. And so the adventure begins… ********************************************************************************************************* The Search for Identification: Re-discovering Batholomew Gosnold Bill Kelso We’re standing inside All Saints Church in Shelley, England, watching as the unmarked ledger stone to the grave that we believe contains the remains of Bartholomew Gosnold’s sister is lifted quickly and effortlessly by a British archaeologist. He scrapes away the sandy dirt beneath the stone, and the outline of a grave shaft begins to appear. All around us, displays of roses, peonies, irises, sweet peas and other flowers from local gardens perfume the air. A few women from this tiny rural village of about 40 people have brought them to decorate the 13th-century church for their annual Flower Festival. Above us, unseen starlings squeak from the rafters, and every 15 minutes the Westminster Chimes plays on the bells in the tower. The setting is so peaceful and the excavation is progressing so rapidly that it seems surreal after the years of research and waiting for permission from the Church of England’s Diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich to obtain a sample from her remains for DNA testing to confirm that the remains are those of her brother. Almost two and a half years ago, we discovered the grave of a man buried just outside the gates of the 1607 James Fort at Historic Jamestowne on Jamestown Island, Virginia. Based on a chain of physical and historical evidence, the remains appear to be those of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, a founding father of modern America. The most compelling piece of evidence that this was a high-ranking person was the discovery of a decorative captain’s leading staff that was ceremoniously placed along one edge of his coffin lid. We have never found any other ceremonial objects in Jamestown burials, so we know this was someone very special, and coffin burials were traditionally used for people of higher status. If it is Gosnold, then we’ve found the ‘lost-to-history’ burial of one of the most influential and moving spirits behind English-American colonization. Captain John Smith credits Gosnold as the prime mover of the colonization of Virginia. Gosnold planned the Jamestown Colony with Smith and others, and obtained an exclusive charter from King James for the Virginia Company to settle Virginia. As vice-admiral of the Jamestown expedition, Gosnold was captain of the Godspeed, one of three ships in the fleet. He also was one of the six members of the original governing council and helped design James Fort. To add hard science to identification evidence, we needed to obtain and compare DNA from his remains with mitochondrial DNA from a relative. Mitochondrial DNA can survive in bones, as it did in this case, but it is only passed along the maternal family line. So, we needed DNA from the Jamestown burial’s mother or his siblings, or nieces or nephews who were the children of his sisters, and so on. Catherine Correll-Walls, a Virginia-based researcher, and Joanna Martin, a historical researcher in Suffolk, England, attempted to identify a living descendent, but lost the trail after three generations beginning with Gosnold’s mother and ending with his nieces. But this research revealed the burial sites of two deceased relatives and possible candidates for DNA testing including Gosnold’s sister, Elizabeth Tilney, who requested in her will to be buried next to her husband at All Saints Church in Shelley. The exact location of her grave is not identified in the church, but luckily, Joanna discovered a record in the Higham St. Mary parish registers that she was buried in the Shelley chancel the day after she died. Elizabeth, who had been the lady of Shelley Manor, had moved to Higham when her family sold the estate after her husband died. He was buried in the church before they moved. Further study of historians’ notes about the memorials and grave stones in the church helped pinpoint where inside the church she was likely to have been buried.

Bill Kelso, Director of Archaeology at Historic Jamestowne, discusses progress of the grave excavation at Shelley church with Suffolk archaeologist Rodney Gardner.

We also learned about the possible location of the grave of Katherine Blackerby, Gosnold’s niece, who is believed to be buried in the Blackerby family vault at St. Peter and St. Mary Church in Stowmarket, England. Next we needed permission from the Church of England to obtain bone samples for DNA testing. I visited the church on a research trip to England and talked to Andrew Scott who was the warden of the church in Shelley to find out if it might be possible and to see what would be involved as far as uncovering the grave to obtain a bone sample for DNA testing. Andrew contacted some Church officials and asked the parishioners if they had any objections. Based on their positive response, we decided to formally request permission even though the Church of England had never approved a request like ours before. As the diocese moved through their extensive and thorough review process, no one thought we would ever get approval. The presumption is against the disturbance of remains – unless there is a really good case for it. There were literally hundreds of moments during the process when the parishioners or committees or officials could have said “no.” Even during the excavations, the project could have been stopped at any time, but once we began, it seemed that the parishioners and officials were as invested in the project and as excited about finding Elizabeth’s grave to possibly confirm the identity of Jamestown’s Gosnold as we were.

Rodney Gardner measures an excavation area around ledgerstone believed to mark Elizabeth Gosnold Tilney's grave.

We brought teeth and bone samples back to the States for testing and comparative analysis. Surprisingly and unfortunately, we learned that the DNA we had obtained was not that of Bartholomew Gosnold's sister, Elizabeth. As a result, we were not able to more conclusively confirm that we had discovered Gosnold's grave. The testing and microscopic analysis, including an osteon analysis of bone and dental samples, indicated that the woman in question was about age 50 when she died, whereas Elizabeth Tilney Gosnold was said to have died at age 74. Researchers believe this body is likely that of Anne Framlingham, born around 1544 and married to Philip Tilney of Shelley Hall as a teenager. We're unaware of any other relatives, buried or living, who could provide a DNA sample match. Nevertheless, because of historical, archaeological and forensic evidence, we're still confident that the grave we've come upon in Jamestown is that of Captain Gosnold's, the Lost Founding Father, and we'll continue to search for other archaeological and forensic evidence to confirm this important discovery. Regardless of the research results, the expedition has done wonders for bringing this colonial explorer the acclaim he deserved but was never given. Though not on the tip of grade-schoolers' tongues, Captain Gosnold's success in starting the Virginia settlement we can now arguably say is one of the most significant events in the subsequent history of the world. Unfortunately, having died so soon after his arrival at Jamestown Gosnold's memoirs have gone unwritten and his role in laying American democratic roots often go unrecognized. Nearly two hundred years later, perhaps the unearthing of his grave will also bring his stories back to life.