Word: aloftness
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...Germany. The Treaty of Versailles forbade Germans to build a powered air force, so future Luftwaffe pilots had to learn to fly in engineless craft. At first, they hedgehopped for short distances along the hillsides, depending on air currents deflected upward by the slopes to keep them aloft. But in 1921, gliding down a slope in the Rhon Mountains, a German airman noticed a flock of storks suddenly shooting upward more than 1,200 ft. without so much as flapping a wing. He turned toward the birds-and found himself wafted higher in a thermal updraft, a chute of warm...
...reports to earth with such singular success marks the most important accomplishment in the annals of space exploration. It is a proud first for the U.S. No achievement by Russian cosmonaut or U.S. astronaut, no experiment made by any of the myriad other satellites that have been shot aloft has taught man nearly so much as he has learned already from the improbable voyage of Mariner...
...other bits and pieces that are abandoned after accompanying spacecraft into orbit. The oldest of these far-out travelers is Explorer I, launched Jan. 31, 1958. Its orbit is beginning to decay. But Vanguard I, launched a month and a half later, is in higher orbit, and may stay aloft for another 1,000 years...
Getting Explorer aloft was largely a Pickering triumph. He hurried to Washington and hollered at Army generals, urging them to demand permission to launch the satellite. He waved his finger and banged on desks, and the generals gained courage from his indignant earnestness...
...Latin America. To make this design enduring, the U.S. insisted that Britain become a member of the Common Market, followed by the Scandinavian and other NATO countries. The defense of this grand design would be twofold: conventional arms and armies supplied by Europe, and the nuclear umbrella held aloft...