Word: aloftness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What makes the whole enterprise of traffic control particularly important is the tremendous U.S. aviation boom, which is constantly putting more and bigger planes aloft. That end of the busy sky is surveyed this week in a second major TIME story. Our cover article concerns Airplane Builder James Smith McDonnell, whose billion-dollar corporation, which is about to merge with Douglas, is doing its share to crowd the airways-and to venture into space beyond...
Like the highways below them, the nation's airways are becoming increasingly congested. At any moment during daylight hours, the FAA estimates, there are between 8,000 and 9,000 planes aloft in the U.S. airspace, as many as 4,000 of them in the "Golden Triangle," formed by lines connecting Chicago, New York and Washington. With 1,000 new planes a month being added to the nation's aircraft population, the traffic jams are becoming increasingly heavy?both in the sky and at airports. Of the 9,500 U.S. airports, only 114 can handle jets. And although...
...every corner of the sprawling aerospace plant on the rim of St. Louis' Lambert Field. It sparkles with an enthusiasm that rises above the inescapable racket of jet aviation?the rumble of commercial planes lifting off the long runways, the ear-shattering passage of military fighters climbing aloft on steep, improbable curves...
Independently launched into orbit by a rocket or carried aloft in a mother spacecraft, lifting bodies will be maneuvered in space with thrusters, much like conventional spacecraft. After they enter the atmosphere, however, the wingless craft will be piloted like gliders to land at existing airports, using their control flaps to maneuver and deriving necessary lift from their aerodynamic shape. Thus the reusable ships could probably become the space age's most utilitarian vehicles...
...dangers, the satisfactions continue to lure traffic watchers aloft. "This is one job where you can see the results of your work," says Kevin O'Keefe of Boston's WHDH. "At dusk, when I suggest that motorists turn their lights on, it looks like a Christmas tree lighting up down there...