Word: airstream
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...oddly soothing sensation. The cockpit is remarkably quiet for a military airplane. Little engine noise gets into it; most of the roar and snarl is blown back with the wake. The air ducts grumble below the floor; a ventilator hisses. When the plane is up to speed, the airstream rushing over the canopy makes a moderate, roar. There is hardly any vibration. Experienced pilots say that the plane handles "like a kiddie-car." When it makes a "low pass," flying close to the ground at 550 m.p.h., objects far ahead seem to vanish before the eye has time to take...
...plastic of the astrodome had broken. The pressure inside, instantly released, had shot George Hart up into the 250 m.p.h. airstream which tossed him back to tumble, without a parachute, more than 3½ miles into the troubled ocean. Said a colleague: "I hope he was knocked out. It would take almost a minute and a half to fall 19,000 feet...
Speed makes the difference-a higher order of speed. Many military planes can plunge in a power dive, faster & faster until the needle of the airspeed indicator creeps close to the dread red mark of "compressibility." At this critical speed, the airstream, accelerated by crowding over the curved surfaces, reaches at certain spots the speed of sound.† Then a standing sound wave may form on the wing or tail, roaring and hammering, perhaps chewing holes in the plane's skin or freezing the controls...
...Suits & Coolers. The jet plane's controls, helped by hydraulic boosters against the powerful airstream, are devilishly sensitive. "The slightest movement hurls you over miles of the earth's surface as the ground blurs beneath you." Jet pilots normally wear "G-suits" to protect them from loss of consciousness. These operate automatically on the turns, keeping the pilots' blood from leaving their brains and concentrating in the lower parts of their bodies. "When you do a sudden steep turn, you are punched severely in the belly as the abdominal bladder inflates and the laces tighten around your...
...speed, heat from the engine and the friction of the airstream zipping over the canopy raises the inside temperature from 40 to 60 degrees. When the outside temperature is already high, this increase is enough to prostrate the pilot. Some ships have elaborate refrigeration systems to cool the cockpits...