Word: aircraft
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...President Nixon. Reconnaissance overflights of North Viet Nam would continue, and armed escort fighter-bombers would accompany the unarmed photographic craft simply for protection. The rules of self-defense were that the planes could not open fire or drop their bombs unless they were 1) fired on by anti-aircraft emplacements, 2) engaged by MIG fighters in the air or 3) threatened by surface-to-air (SAM) missiles. Pilots could readily tell when they were in danger from SAMs because an indicator on their control panel would automatically light up when a SAM'S tracking radar locked onto their...
...that since the original formulation of the rules of engagement in 1968, Hanoi had greatly increased the sophistication of its air defenses. For years Hanoi had utilized -in addition to the SAM-linked radar -a countrywide Ground Clearance Intercept system similar to U.S. commercial radar for ground control of aircraft. At the time of his command, U.S. planes could detect the local SAM radar, but few if any were equipped to detect tracking by the GCI radar system (most are now). In any case, if that radar was working properly, most U.S. planes would be picked up and monitored long...
Running Circles. To reduce the turbulence and at the same time increase the rudder's effective steering angle, a group led by Naval Architect Barry Steele, of Britain's National Physical Laboratory, revived an idea once proposed for aircraft wing flaps. They fitted rotating cylinders around the rudder posts of several ship models (see diagram). Equipped with its own small motor, the cylinder can spin in either direction. Thus when the rudder is pushed hard to port (left), for instance, the cylinder is rotated in a clockwise direction. This directs a flow of water against the back...
...Once the basic research had been done, Irving and Suskind simply sat down at a tape recorder, interviewed each other, and began spinning tales. They invented scandalous stories of how Hughes seduced his father's mistress while his father was watching, how Hughes once rescued a kleptomaniac aircraft executive from imprisonment for a theft of Oreo cookies, and how Hughes reluctantly went swimming in the nude with-of course-Ernest Hemingway. The imaginary Hughes had originally barged in on Hemingway in Sun Valley, introduced himself as a bush pilot and taken the novelist "for a spin...
...plane would not require such expensive features as ejection seats and life-support systems, which are necessary to ensure the pilot's safety. Even landing gear might be eliminated; there are concepts in which RPVs could be launched by mobile catapult or from the wings of larger mother aircraft-and then be hooked in the air by the mother ship and retrieved as they descend under parachutes...