Word: bladed
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...estimated 170 m.p.h. in his rear-engined, $250,000 Miss Bardahl when he flashed past the judges' stand on the second lap of the regatta's second heat. In full view of 20,000 horrified spectators, Miss Bardahl clipped something in the water, sheared off a propeller blade, shot straight up into the air, fell back, and disintegrated. Less than three hours later, in the final heat, Don Wilson, 34, in Miss Budweiser and Rex Manchester, 39, in Notre Dame were jockeying for position on the back straightaway when Notre Dame skidded sideways and collided with Miss Budweiser...
...camera. To his peerless rhetoric he is now adding increasingly polished stage business. Just before he delivers a cruncher, his tongue licks from the corner of his mouth, his patrician voice rasps into a lower register. Similarly, the elevation of his eyebrows telegraphs the drop of a guillotine blade. Another Buckley tactic-when the antagonist has the floor-is to close his eyes, as if he is hearing insufferable platitudes, or to raise them heavenward, as if to invoke Aquinas against such patent sophistry...
...plane air force for its annual flyin, put on a dazzling display of aerial stunts, precision landings, and simulated bombing with colored flour sacks. The gyrocopters came as plain or fancy as the owners could afford, but all were equipped with a pusher engine, one rudder, one rotor blade, and a single seat with steering stick. The gas tank holds six gallons, good for about an hour's flight. The craft can rise to an altitude of two miles, but most flyers preferred to stay under...
Zero Landings. Since the Federal Aviation Agency requires all gyrocopters to be at least 51% homemade, there were hairy tales of accidents to swap. One builder had mounted his rotor blade upside down, then vainly tried taking off with it that way. Another had added bolts to eliminate rotor teetering; when he took off, his craft turned into a gyroscope, flipped over and collapsed...
Crumpled Craft. "The main fear is losing your rotor blade," says Don White, a mechanical engineer at Douglas Aircraft. "I imagine nearly every guy has had at least one engine failure, and this is something you can cope with. The gyrocopter just settles down to earth. But if you lose your rotor blade, you're out of luck. It's like a wing on an airplane." Fortunately, the gyrocopter is what pilots call "a forgiving plane"; the construction tends to give on crashing, and there is little mass to crush or entangle the pilot. "If he lands...