Launching Gallery

The Summer Car of the River: Motor-launching on the Thames

An illustration by C.E. Turner depicting the fashion for motor-boats or motor-launches during the 1920s among the upper classes, enabling peaceful travel away from the jumbled traffic of weekend roads'. The caption reads: There has been much talk of late of the neglect of the river. That ther is truth in the jeremiads of the boatmen cannot be denied; and needless to say, the motor-car has come in for the chief blame. It is hardly fair, however, to put everything down to this; for it is to be feared that the weather has also played a malignant part on occasion! Given sunny days, indeed, the waters of the Thames, more particularly, retain all their attractions, and it may be added that the motor-launch is gaining in popularity every year; is becoming, in fact, the car of the river. And to the motor launch must now be added the outboard motor-boat; that is to say, the comparatively small craft with detatchable motor and propellor. It may be prophesying rather far ahead, but it seems likely that, with the week-end roads a jumble of traffic, the rivers will be used more and more as a summer highway

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10224235

Kepler Mission rocket launch

Kepler Mission rocket launch. Delta II 7925 rocket taking off to launch NASA's Kepler Mission. This mission is designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. A 0.95 metre diameter telescope called a photometer will scan 100, 000 stars in the Milky Way for evidence of Earth-sized terrestrial planets that transit the star's path. The mission was launched on March 7th, 2009, and will orbit the Sun for at least 3.5 years. The mission is named in honour of German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Photographed on 6 March 2009, at Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA

© NASA/REGINA MITCHELL-RYALL, TOM FARRAR/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

First World War surveillance kite

First World War surveillance kite. US soldier being lifted up by a surveillance kite during the First World War (1914-1918). As the stalemate of trench warfare developed on the Western Front in the First World War, a variety of aerial reconnaissance methods were used to map enemy positions. These included aircraft and balloons. This is one of the giant man-carrying kites developed by Samuel Perkins, being tested at Camp Devens, Ayer, Massachusetts, USA. The kites were never used in action. Here, the soldier riding the kite is Lieutenant Kirk Booth of the US Army's Signal Corps. The US entered the war on 6 April 1917, playing a crucial role in helping Britain and France to defeat Germany and its allies. Photographed in 1918

© US ARMY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY