Word: aircrafters
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...imagine an American weapons program so fraught with problems that Dick Cheney would try repeatedly to cancel it - hard, that is, until you get to know the Osprey. As Defense Secretary under George H.W. Bush, Cheney tried four times to kill the Marine Corps's ungainly tilt-rotor aircraft. Four times he failed. Cheney found the arguments for the combat troop carrier unpersuasive and its problems irredeemable. "Given the risk we face from a military standpoint, given the areas where we think the priorities ought to be, the V-22 is not at the top of the list," he told...
...aircraft that flies like an airplane but takes off and lands like a chopper is about to make its combat debut in Iraq. It has been a long, strange trip: the V-22 has been 25 years in development, more than twice as long as the Apollo program that put men on the moon. V-22 crashes have claimed the lives of 30 men - 10 times the lunar program's toll - all before the plane has seen combat. The Pentagon has put $20 billion into the Osprey and expects to spend an additional $35 billion before the program is finished...
...shows how the system fails at its most significant task, by placing in jeopardy those we count on to protect us. For even at a stratospheric price, the V-22 is going into combat shorthanded. As a result of decisions the Marine Corps made over the past decade, the aircraft lacks a heavy-duty, forward-mounted machine gun to lay down suppressing fire against forces that will surely try to shoot it down. And if the plane's two engines are disabled by enemy fire or mechanical trouble while it's hovering, the V-22 lacks a helicopter's ability...
...Fifteen years ago, this regional arms race might not have seemed surprising. Many countries openly feared China, which advertised its military strength and staked claims to islands in the South China Sea. When China lobbed missiles near Taiwan in 1995 and '96, the White House sent aircraft carriers to the Taiwan Strait. But Beijing apparently recognized its mistakes and shifted course. Over the past decade, it has signed ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and pushed a collective free-trade deal with Southeast Asia. Focused together on terrorism, Washington and Beijing have built closer military links. Just as important...
...extinguishers for the Hindenburg. Union officials have said that the plan calls for the company to try raise up to 1.5 billion euros in capital, cut some 1,000 of its 18,000 jobs, eliminate several of its more unprofitable routes and retire more than a dozen of its aircraft. Amidst often clashing pressures from the industry, unions and Italy's ever-unstable political climate, it is unclear whether the plan can pass muster either with the market or the ruling coalition...