Word: 3s
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Long before jets turned world travelers into day-trippers, there was the Gooney Bird, or DC-3. Slow and snub-nosed, more than 10,000 propeller-driven DC-3s made by Douglas Aircraft transported troops to victory in World War II and then re-entered civilian life to lure an entire generation to the skies. More than half a century after its debut in 1935, the Gooney Bird now has a second wind: Warren Basler, an air-freight operator and pilot in Oshkosh, Wis., has started outfitting refurbished DC-3s with turboprop-jet engines that will enable the planes...
Basler's business has more to do with economics than nostalgia. A modern small cargo jet or a commuter plane, like the Fokker F-27, commands $5 million to $8 million. But Basler can deliver his converted DC-3s for less than $3 million. Furthermore, a DC-3 averages 18 minutes of maintenance for every hour of flying time, less than the 55 minutes of work needed to keep an F-27 aloft for an hour...
...newer, stronger one and adds NASA-designed wing tips to improve the craft's aerodynamics. Next come modern instruments, radar and communications equipment for the cockpit and then two 1,420-h.p. Pratt & Whitney turboprop-jet engines. Since January, Basler has filled orders for four jet-style DC-3s from air-freight companies. Demand has been so strong that he plans to build a new factory, which will enable him to convert eight aircraft at a time and double his staff to 100 employees...
...headed a group of sky diving aficionados who gathered in Muskogee, Okla., to have a go at breaking their 1983 record of 72 parachutists in cluster formation. Even though 24 previous attempts had ended in failure, hopes were high as the sky divers boarded three specially equipped DC-3s. At 15,000 ft. they bailed out, took 61 sec. to set up the formation, then held it for 7.67 sec. Jumper Bill Campbell of Muskogee had only a limited view, but, he said, "I knew it had happened by watching the smiling faces in front...
...nonetheless is a potent weapon: its existence ensures that part of China's nuclear deterrent can survive an enemy's first strike on its land-based missiles. In order of size there followed three medium-range land-launched CSS-2s, three intermediate-range CSS-3s and, largest by far, a CSS-4, a three-stage intercontinental mammoth capable of hitting targets as far as 8,000 miles away, a range that includes the Soviet Union, the U.S. and all of Asia. So big was the CSS-4 that it was trundled by, separated into its stages...