Word: crash
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...flight line, but they have a limited number of planes to keep flying, and front-office pressure to keep those planes in the air can be subtly intense. Occasionally, the mechanics slip; in 1961, a Northwest Orient plane's aileron cables were improperly installed, causing a crash that killed...
...that take more time and cost more in fuel. Circling in a fog over Tokyo in March, a Canadian Pacific pilot decided to divert his flight to Taipei; he changed his mind when he heard a better weather reading from the Tokyo tower and tried a visual approach. The crash killed...
...most cautious and experienced pilots have been known to make just such errors. Example: the St. Louis crash that killed Astronauts Elliott See and Charles Bassett. Pilot See, having missed his first pass at the runway, told the tower that he planned a second instrument-landing approach in his T-38 jet trainer. He inexplicably continued to fly a visual pattern and made a wide turn just below the overcast, ran into a patch of fog, apparently lost orientation, slammed a building-and just barely missed demolishing the room where all the space capsules for the next four Gemini flights...
Experts figure that they could reduce the number of crash deaths by 50% if they could prevent fires. The airlines, the military, the FAA, CAB and NASA are all hard at work on just that problem. They are developing a "very promising" jellied fuel that burns slowly and does not leak from ruptured tanks. The Pentagon and the FAA are experimenting with "tough wall" tanks made of nylon and polyurethane; when a tough-wall helicopter was slammed against a jagged rock at 100 Gs, the crash left only a one-eighth-inch crack. Airlines are also experimenting with a fire...
...pilots when two planes get on a collision course. It will also instruct pilots-by means of arrows on the instrument panel -which way to turn to avoid trouble. Everyone is trying to improve altimeters, which are tough to read and may have figured in the first 727 crash, into Lake Michigan, last year. Boeing is tinkering with a radio altimeter, from which a girl's voice calls out the altitude as the plane descends...