Word: delta
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Delta Clipper-Experimental (or DC-X) is quite real, and its brief maiden voyage last week -- space engineers called it a "bunny hop" -- could signal the start of a new era in space travel. A grandchild of the original Star Wars program, the Delta Clipper is designed to accomplish precisely what the space shuttle promised but never delivered: cheap, dependable access to space...
...stages. The DC-X is the world's first fully reusable spacecraft, and its myriad computer systems make it easy to launch and repair. It can be fired off by a crew of three, far fewer than the army of 1,700 needed by the shuttle. Bottom line: the Delta Clipper should be able to carry 10-ton payloads to orbit -- manned or unmanned -- for $500 to $1,000 per lb., compared with 28 tons a load at $10,000 per lb. for the space shuttle...
Nowhere are these effects more dramatic than in the Mississippi Delta, which used to be replenished every year with rich alluvial deposits. Now the soil, laden with nutrients, is carried by the river, bypasses the Delta and falls into the Gulf of Mexico, where it is contributing to algae blooms and threatening the fisheries. The Delta is sinking, with the result that the levees keeping the river at bay have to be periodically raised...
United, American and Delta may not be cowering at the thought of Classic Air, but the one-plane carrier represents a competitive spirit that is sweeping the entire industry -- and may ultimately threaten the industry leaders. In the biggest burst of entrepreneurial excitement since the boom after deregulation in the early 1980s, it seems that almost everyone with a hankering to start an airline is suddenly preparing for takeoff. Despite an industrywide slump and record losses of $8 billion since 1990, some 15 passenger airlines have begun flying in the past year alone. They range from Reno Air, a full...
With each administration, a few top experts with ties to the right places get on the Delta shuttle and say goodbye to academic life. On their coattails travel junior colleagues and friends, and in their wake sit rudderless graduate students with half-finished theses...