Word: aircraft
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...initial impasse came when the Soviet negotiators wanted to tackle limits on defensive systems first; the U.S. insisted that offensive and defensive weapons should not be considered separately. Later, the Russians demanded that some 600 U.S. aircraft carrying tactical nuclear weapons from bases in Europe or with the Sixth Fleet be classed as offensive systems, since they could strike the U.S.S.R. But Moscow regarded its own tactical nukes, capable of reaching NATO forces in Europe, as defensive. The U.S. finally agreed to discuss ABMs first, and the Russians agreed to exclude short-range nuclear weapons from the freeze on offensive...
...with pinpoint accuracy and send payloads to much more distant targets in the solar system, the control of air traffic closer to home is still crude and imprecise in comparison. As a result, runways are overcrowded on the ground, air lanes are jammed aloft. Particularly near airports, spacing between aircraft is often so hard to control that near-misses are dangerously familiar. Is there any solution in sight for the growing air-traffic snarl...
...stations to set up their own straight-line "phantom" path with waystations that will guide them directly from one airport to another. (Ground controllers will still have to approve the route and monitor the flight to avoid conflict with other planes.) Furthermore, R-Nav will relieve bottlenecks near airports. Aircraft will be able to approach the landing runway from a number of different directions; under existing controls, they must all be funneled into the same approach track. Indeed, area navigation should be so efficient that Eastern Airlines Board Chairman Floyd Hall likens its introduction to converting "an old-fashioned horse...
...estimated cost was $440 million. This month the two governments gave the latest, far from final estimate: $2.5 billion. Each Concorde will cost some $49.4 million with spare parts, or 83% more than the present price for a 747 jumbo jet. It is small wonder that the builders, British Aircraft Corp. and France's Aerospatiale, do not have a single firm order so far, although 16 airlines have options for 74 planes. The builders do not expect all those options to be taken up. Even state-owned BOAC and Air France have not signed contracts to buy, despite intense...
Limited Load. Concorde's small payload over the North Atlantic is the main reason for the airlines' reluctance. Geoffrey Knight, Chairman of British Aircraft Corp.'s commercial division, says that the Concorde will be able to carry at least 100 passengers from Paris to New York in 3 hr. 40 min. But that number assumes a mixture of men, women and children, weighing on average only 200 Ibs. with baggage-a total of 20,000 Ibs. The Concorde, however, is likely to be a businessmen's jet, since they will be among the few people willing...