Word: circulars
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...small private airports-had only one runway, leaving him little choice in the direction of his approach and landing. As he struggled with the controls, Conrey longed for a landing strip that would always allow him to approach into the wind-no matter what its direction. Why not a circular runway? he asked himself. With great single-mindedness, he polished his idea, found an ideal test site-the banked, circular General Motors test track at Mesa, Ariz.-and persuaded the Navy to get G.M.'s permission for landing and takeoff tests...
...before his concept was tried, Conrey was killed in an aircraft-carrier landing accident. But now he has won post-mortem recognition. In a report on tests made at Mesa in 1964, the Navy has predicted "a definite and vital place in future aviation" for the circular runway...
Inside a Bowl. Because it would slope upward in a graduated bank from its inner edge to its raised outer edge-much like the inside of a shallow bowl -the circular runway would provide great directional stability to a plane landing at high speed. It would prevent the plane from veering out of control to the right or left. Pulled outward by centrifugal force and downward by gravity, a fast-rolling plane would be confined to a circular path high against the outer, steeply sloping part of the runway. As its speed decreased, centrifugal force would lessen, and gravity would...
...advantages. Planes would never run out of landing room, as they often do at conventional airports; they could simply continue to circle until they slowed sufficiently to use a banked turn-off ramp that would lead them to a centrally located terminal, conveniently spotted for passengers or freight. A circular runway would also be able to handle more traffic than straight runways. With a diameter of 10,500 ft.-about the length of most jet runways-it would have a circumference of more than 32,000 ft., allowing the simultaneous takeoff or landing of several planes spaced at safe distances...
Eyeball Maneuvers. From the time that Schirra made the final major thrust that moved his ship up toward Gemini 7's circular orbit, Gemini 6 was completely on its own, freed from direct guidance by Houston, largely dependent on its on-board computer, its radar and Command Pilot Schirra's "eyeball" maneuvering. Both Schirra and Stafford literally had their hands full. Schirra's left hand was on the OAMS (Orbital Attitude Maneuvering System) translation stick, which controls Gemini's 85-Ib. and 100-lb. thrusters, and is-in NASA parlance-"direction oriented." When he wanted...