Word: aloft
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...noticeably unballasted with solid thought, the Herseyan exposé of war as psychoneurosis is about on a par with the fond illusion of the '30s that wars were made by munitions merchants. Whenever his story of a U.S. Flying Fortress crew in World War II does get fleetingly aloft, it is thanks to John Hersey's reportorial reflexes, which are as crisply functional as propeller blades...
...looked like a meteor-plummeted through the stars of the heavens and then disappeared over the horizon. Hours later in Washington, U.S. spacemen announced the news: Big Joe, the funnel-shaped prototype of the vehicle that will carry the first U.S. man into space in 1961, had been shot aloft in a test and had been recovered intact. Had a man been inside for the historic flight, he would have made his return in complete safety...
...realized afresh how moving was man's capacity for hope and how strong was man's capacity for life. Man's will to live was a familiar story to Mydans: in 1940 a shrieking, clawing Chinese woman in Chungking had begged for money as she held aloft her dead infant, waving it by one foot, "like a butcher with a plucked chicken." Mydans gave her some money, and later that night, belly tight with food, Mydans came shamefully back to the spot where he. had seen her. There she sat, a bowl of white rice...
...jets cruise at 550 m.p.h., but the queues of passengers at airport ticket counters still creep at the old snail's pace. To bring ticketing up to jet-age standards, Denver's Continental Air Lines last month began selling tickets aloft instead of at airports on its Boeing 707 flights between Chicago and Los Angeles. Continental's competitors at first scoffed that the commuterlike service would produce only confusion, but last week they banked steeply onto Continental's course. The innovation proved so successful in eliminating nagging airport waits (it also helped boost Continental...
...airport deposits his bags and picks up a check at the ticket counter, then goes directly to the flight gate. If he has a reservation, he boards the plane immediately; if not, an attendant checks whether space is available, passes the passenger through. Only when the aircraft is aloft does the passenger pay an agent for his ticket and any excess baggage. Passengers still need reservations to be absolutely certain of a seat, but the airlines expect plenty of extra seats to be available once the big-load jets (no passengers v. the DC-7's 75) start flying...