Word: aircrafting
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...just outer space that's the final frontier. It's also the rarified climes present at 90,000-plus feet, on the whisper-thin edge of Earth's atmosphere. It is here that NASA had a later-day Mercury moment Tuesday, when its experimental Helios aircraft shattered altitude records and pointed the way toward one day flying on Mars...
...grips an official-looking piece of paper. A pilot since he was 18 and now CEO of Airfreight Express (AFX), he is holding a copy of the most important document in aviation safety: a work card. These government-approved forms are used to document repair or maintenance of all aircraft. "Trust still exists in the aviation industry," explains Bowles, "because when these forms are completed, an airline can be 100% certain that the aircraft is airworthy...
...Aircraft maintenance and repair is supposed to be an exact science. Detailed procedures are required for each task, and unique tools are often needed. The FAA requires that all work be done according to precise specifications from the aircraft's manufacturer and that it be approved by the agency. Compliance is so rigid that it is measured in millimeters. Work cards document every step in the process and are reviewed first by the airline and then by FAA inspectors. Maintenance errors are suspected in the most recent major U.S. crash, Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which plummeted into the Pacific Ocean...
...having served two years as a gunner on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise in the Pacific, he watched another carrier, the U.S.S. Franklin, turned into an oven by a Japanese bombing attack, smelling the stench of more than 700 men slow-roasted alive between its steel decks. "After that," he wrote, "I became a f___ing coward & was ready to come home immediately, to hell with the war & all that crap about what we are fighting for, etc? Well anyway the Korean War came along & I wanted to see if I was still a coward--I was!" By 1952, when...
...after a stint on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, was shipped out to these islands four years ago. Woodland lived and worked on Kadena Air Force Base as a member of the Air Force 353rd Special Operations Group. His duty assignment was to select the best-suited aircraft to fly each mission scheduled at the base. His military record is unremarkable except for an achievement medal awarded in 1997. "He was a pretty quiet guy, and he was always playing basketball on base," says Emma Wilkinson, 26, a civilian friend. "He didn't hit the club scene that...