Spartan

A Spartan is a person from the Greek city Sparta.

The word may also refer to the following:

Aircraft

LIM-49 Spartan

The LIM-49A Spartan was a United States Army anti-ballistic missile, designed to intercept attacking nuclear warheads from Intercontinental ballistic missiles at long range and while still outside the atmosphere. For deployment, a defensive five-megaton atomic warhead was planned to destroy the incoming ICBM. It was part of the Safeguard Program.

Spartan was the ultimate development in a long series of missile designs from the team of Bell Laboratories and Douglas Aircraft Company that started in the 1940s with the Nike. Spartan was developed directly from the preceding LIM-49 Nike Zeus, retaining the same tri-service identifier, but growing larger and longer ranged, from the Zeus' 250 miles (400 km) to about 450 miles (720 km).

Spartan was initially developed as part of the Nike-X project, later becoming the Sentinel Program. This was eventually cancelled and replaced with the much smaller Safeguard Program. Spartans were deployed as part of the Safeguard system from October 1975 to early 1976.

Roderick Bradley

Rod Bradley (born 29 March 1983) is an English player of American football, as well an artist and entrepreneur.

Education

Roderick Bradley was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1983. He attended Oakham School between 1994 and 2001 before going to Loughborough to study art. He graduated in 2004 with a degree in illustration from the school of art and design. He was found to be dyslexic at an early age, causing him trouble academically in school. He became interested in art and spent much of his time drawing in exercise books.

Sporting career

Eventually Rod started to play American football. He excelled and became the Great Britain youth champion in less than a year. In the European championships he suffered a seemingly career-ending injury to his knee, leaving his lower leg almost detached from the upper after ligament tears. After months of rehabilitation and surgery he could walk again, but medical advice suggested an end to his sporting career. He received a call up to the Great Britain squad two years later after many attempts to return to action, playing alongside his brother for his country.