Word: aloft
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Every historical change," wrote Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, "creates its mythology." Lindbergh was the mythic hero of early aviation. In 1927 flying shone with the innocence of its newness and possibility, with the untrammeled zest of lifting off from the earth. Aloft, wrote Lindbergh, "I live only in the moment in this strange, unmortal space, crowded with beauty, pierced with danger." He was a sky lover; his was a rare moment: personal confidence and skill in partnership with a machine, not overwhelmed by it, as would happen later...
...rocket, man dreamed of hoisting sail and traveling through space in wind-blown ships. In The True History, a tale written in the 2nd century A.D. by the satirist and onetime lawyer, Lucian of Samosata, a ship with a 50-man crew is caught in an Atlantic storm, carried aloft and sent, sail billowing, on a journey to the moon. Later storytellers launched ships with sails on even more fanciful space trips. But none of these fictional voyages was as remarkable as the mission now being planned for NASA by scientists at Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
Still, the huge sailer poses a problem. The sail must be carried aloft furled (folded, it will fit into a package of only one cubic meter) and the framework assembled far beyond the atmosphere. Luckily, NASA is readying a suitable ferry: the space shuttle. Capable of carrying the sail and framework in its large equipment bay, the shuttle should be in regular use by the proposed launch date for the sailing ship: January...
...next crucial phase comes in July, when the Enterprise, while aloft, will fire charges to release itself from the three pylons that hold it to the 747. The orbiter will then glide to earth to test a landing on its own. If all goes well, the Enterprise will be rocketed into space from Kennedy Space Center in 1979 (TIME, Feb. 14). It will land at Edwards, then be shuttled back to Florida atop the 747 for more launchings. Eventually the Enterprise and its successive sister ships should be able to wing their own way back to runways near their launching...
...machine anywhere. It is a converted Boeing 747 that bulges and bristles with a mind-stunning array of electronic gadgetry designed to defend the plane and prevent interference with communications. It is also loaded with an equally dazzling array of high-and low-frequency communications devices. Capable of staying aloft for 72 hours, the plane can roam at low or very high altitudes, up to more than 45,000 ft. To keep in touch with U.S. submarines, the craft can unreel up to five miles of wire antenna, ¾ in. thick and weighing several tons...