Word: air
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...airplane is supported by the reaction between its stationary wings and the air that strikes them as the plane moves horizontally. A bird is supported in the same way. The broad inner portions of its wings, which move less than the tips, are kept at any angle of attack that gives them maximum lift...
Slots & Flaps. The lift in an airplane's wings can be increased by increasing the angle of attack (i.e., the angle at which it meets the air stream). If the angle becomes too great, the air stream does not flow smoothly over the wing; it breaks into turbulent eddies. The wing loses most of its lift, and the stall that results can throw the airplane, into a disastrous spin. The danger of stalling can be lessened by slots behind the leading edge of the wing. The slots feed thin layers of air to the wing's upper side...
...movable feather called an "alula," which usually rests against the leading edge. When the bird needs extra lift from its wings (i.e., for a quick, high-angle climb), it increases its wings' angle of attack. Then it opens a slot by moving the alula. A thin stream of air rushes over the wing, preventing a stall...
...wife Jessie sometimes protests: "Oh Erwin, not that one again!" One of his favorites is about two Englishwomen who were being chauffeur-driven around Detroit in a G.M. limousine. Someone touched a hydraulic window-lift button by mistake, and the glass partition dropped, letting in a blast of air that billowed up the guests' skirts. "Gracious!" cried one, "don't you Americans ever do anything by hand...
...Meaning that the air-fuel mixture in the cylinder fills 7.25 times more space before it is compressed by the piston than after it is compressed for ignition by the sparkplug...