Word: aircrafting
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...difficulty of the feat, and how the aircraft itself made an impact: "Imagine trying to disarm a bomb while also having to deal with menial chores and talk on the phone at the same time. Sullenberger and [co-pilot] Jeffrey Skiles disarmed a bomb on a three-minute fuse. They did it by concentrating on the two really important matters - how to get the engines started, and where to land. They could have done it in a Boeing, too. But it was helpful to their immediate cause that they were working with the product of [Airbus engineer Bernard] Ziegler...
...military's strategic vision for defeating the technologically superior U.S. in any future conflict. That means conducting so-called asymmetrical warfare, aimed at using the U.S.'s dependence on technology as a weapon: for example, targeting America's network of space satellites or developing missiles that could sink U.S. aircraft carriers. For China's generals, though, of all the asymmetrical methods of attack available to them, cyberwar presents a uniquely effective - and cost-effective - means of neutralizing the U.S advantage. "They recognized the importance as far back as the early '90s," says Mulvenon, "and they now have a major advantage...
...conducted your research? I was deeply impressed by the Airbus 320 and its flight-control system. What Bernard Ziegler did is still surprising to me. [Ziegler, a French engineer, developed the plane's fly-by-wire technology that uses computers to help stabilize and guide the aircraft.] I don't want to imply that the pilots would not have been able to land successfully if the plane didn't have [that technology.] They probably would have pulled off the same success. But this was a particularly easy airplane to fly - it stays where you put it, automatically, in terms...
...past year doubled its number of helicopters based in Afghanistan to about 225, but troop numbers have risen even faster, making for a more acute chopper shortage. Helicopters are swift but delicate machines. The physics of flight make them inherently unstable, and therefore less reliable, than fixed-wing aircraft which generate their lift from stationary wings instead of egg-beater-like rotor blades. More critically, chopper pilots are commonly expected to fly in hot weather at high altitudes, where less-dense air offers them less control over their aircraft...
Even without a sleep disorder, experts say there are many reasons why one or both of the Northwest pilots might have nodded off. Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group working to lower aviation accidents, says modern aircraft give flight crews very little to do during the straight-and-level portions of flight. "The aircraft is on autopilot, the flight plan's programmed in, one pilot says hello and goodbye to a controller every 10 to 15 minutes, and there's not a lot else going on," says Voss, who added that the crew's claim...