Word: gondolas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Guided by Colonel John P. Stapp (TIME, Sept. 12, 1955), boss of the Air Force's Aero Medical Laboratories, eager Jet Pilot Kittinger, 28, climbed into an instrument-cramped, air-conditioned gondola, was borne upward by a huge helium-filled plastic balloon as ground crews tracked his progress. Kittinger took only 80 minutes to reach the 18-mile mark, spent two hours at peak height before failure of his voice transmitter promoted safety-conscious Supervisor Stapp to order him to earth...
...dignity. Its helium-filled balloon, made of plastic film, and 128 ft. in diameter, rose without trouble from the same bowl-like depression near Rapid City, S. Dak. that the Army's record-setting flight used in 1935. Far below its partly expanded bag hung a spherical aluminum gondola stuffed with scientific apparatus. Inside were Lieut. Commanders Malcolm D. Ross and Morton L. Lewis, wearing man-from-Mars pressure suits and festooned with instruments to measure their heart action, breathing, etc., and report the readings to escort aircraft and ground radios. The primary purpose of the flight...
...gondola began to spin crazily, 14 miles above the earth, and the great gasbag would not stop descending. Apparently a malfunctioning valve on the balloon had begun to release helium. The men radioed that the balloon was out of control. They dumped all the ballast and strapped themselves to the gondola's seats. "We are calm, cool and collected," they radioed. "We think we'll stay with the balloon as long...
...reduce the dangerous speed of descent, they jettisoned batteries, oxygen apparatus, everything in the gondola that could be torn loose. They were drifting over the sandhill cattle country of northwest Nebraska, and little by little the descent of the balloon decreased to a safer rate. As the gondola approached the ground, the crew detached the gasbag, which soared off on the wind. The gondola dropped the few remaining feet, its fall cushioned by a plastic shock absorber, and the two men from Mars stepped out. Almost at once a light airplane piloted by Don Higgins of Ainsworth, Neb. landed beside...
...money worries-which is FITs-the company handles an average of 1,100 trips a month. The customer can theoretically leave his money belt behind, once the company hands him his blue wallet stuffed with prepaid coupons for every service he will need, down to the last cab, gondola ride, sales tax and tip. With each book of FIT coupons comes a neatly typed, individual itinerary that plots each move and ticks off every landmark, e.g., the Leaning Tower of Pisa is 13 feet off center because of the "unequal setting of the foundation." The FIT customer pays...