Word: gooney
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Long before jets turned world travelers into day-trippers, there was the Gooney Bird, or DC-3. Slow and snub-nosed, more than 10,000 propeller-driven DC-3s made by Douglas Aircraft transported troops to victory in World War II and then re-entered civilian life to lure an entire generation to the skies. More than half a century after its debut in 1935, the Gooney Bird now has a second wind: Warren Basler, an air-freight operator and pilot in Oshkosh, Wis., has started outfitting refurbished DC-3s with turboprop-jet engines that will enable the planes...
About 1,500 Gooney Birds still fly -- primarily on military and scientific missions. When Basler gets his hands on one that has been well maintained, he first lengthens the fuselage by 40 inches, replaces the original transverse spar supporting the wings with a newer, stronger one and adds NASA-designed wing tips to improve the craft's aerodynamics. Next come modern instruments, radar and communications equipment for the cockpit and then two 1,420-h.p. Pratt & Whitney turboprop-jet engines. Since January, Basler has filled orders for four jet-style DC-3s from air-freight companies. Demand has been...
Moneymen look for ways to reduce Third World debt. -- On the takeover trail with the Hafts. -- Jet- propelled Gooney Birds...
...Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), the Unfinished- Furniture King of the Southwest and sire of Harry, Barry, Larry, Garry and Nathan Jr., the famous Arizona quints. It is a temptation no child-hungry couple could resist. They should have, though. For the McDonnoughs are soon furiously pursued by their gooney neighbors Dot and Glen (Frances McDormand and Sam McMurray) and their marauding kids, two fugitive brothers named Gale (John Goodman) and Evelle (William Forsythe), and a bounty hunter (Randall (("Tex")) Cobb) who roars out of Hi's dreams as the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse. Poor Hi and Ed. Raising Nathan...
Airplane! is a splendidly tacky, totally tasteless, completely insignificant flight, a gooney bird of a movie that looks as if it could never get off the ground and then surprises and delights with its free-spirited aerobatics...