Word: aire
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Although Chiang was, unsurprisingly, too preoccupied to see him, the top officials of the Nationalist government turned out to greet Porter at a dinner at the home of the U.S. chargé d'affaires, on the day of his arrival. Sensing a certain "strain in the air," Porter opened the conversation jovially: "I suppose that if I convince you of my point of view, you'll all be shot." A glacial silence descended on the party, and Porter returned to Tokyo next...
From a launching pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base last week, a 78-ft., two-stage Discoverer rocket soared skyward into a fine north-south polar orbit. The following afternoon, on its 17th orbit, if things went according to plan, a remote-control signal would eject the 310-lb. payload from Discoverer VIII's orbiting second-stage rocket, and the capsule would fall earthward, slowed by a 30-ft.-wide parachute...
...after the launching, nine C-119 Flying Boxcars, fitted with gadgets designed to snag the parachute in midair, took off from Hawaii's Hickam Air Force Base to hover over the target area. Two Navy recovery ships patrolled the ocean below in case none of the Boxcars managed to hook the parachute. Like its predecessors, the Discoverer VIII capsule was designed to float, flash lights and beam directional radio signals to guide the search...
After ham and eggs one night last week, Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger, 31, drove up to a 2 a.m. rendezvous in the clear, cold New Mexico desert and methodically climbed into one of the strangest costumes ever worn by man. First he put on two suits of insulated, porous underwear, then a partial-pressure suit, heavy, quilted long underwear, standard Air Force flying suit, heavy G.I. socks, electrically heated socks, heavy woolen socks, rubberized boots (called Li'l Abners), nylon gloves, high-altitude pressure gloves, electrically heated flying gloves, glass-faced space helmet...
Through the thin, -104°F. air he fell freely, first face down, then atumble, then on his back-1,000, 5,000, 10,000 ft.-reaching a flashing terminal velocity of about 450 m.p.h. As he plummeted, he took readings on his instruments, and with cool self-possession, tape-recorded his "subjective reactions and observations of this interesting experiment." On he dropped, like a stone into a void-until at an altitude of 12,000 ft., 2 min. 58 sec. and twelve miles after he had bailed out, a barometric device on his pack blew open his parachute...