Word: grounds
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...White and Roger Chaffee died by fire on Cape Kennedy's Pad 34 because some of the best engineering talent in the U.S., hypersensitive to the perils of space, failed to recognize the grave dangers of a simulated flight only a couple of hun dred feet above the ground...
First came one of those infuriating 2½-hour delays on the ground while a mechanic replaced a faulty electrical relay, a standard item on any jet transport. Then Test Pilot Brien Wygle gunned the plane down a mere 3,200 ft. of runway and climbed swiftly into the sky above Boeing Field near Seattle. Boeing's twin-engine 737 was making its late-starting entry in the race to sell short-haul jets to the world's airlines...
...quieter ride, the 737 has its jets slung beneath the wings. The result, claim Boeing engineers, is a lighter plane with a roomier aft portion of the cabin. Both planes can make money with only a quarter of their seats filled, come equipped with their own boarding stairs, ground airconditioning, and jet-starting units to keep intermediate stops brief. The planes thus satisfy the airlines' most immediate need: low-cost jets to replace obsolescent piston and turboprop planes on runs of up to 1,000 miles, which account for 50% of the world's air-passenger business...
...usual safety checks for an actual launch had been run on the day of the simulation, the accident probably would not have occurred. In future simulations, such checks will be run. Also, pure oxygen will not be used at 16 Ibs. per sq. in. during routine manned ground tests as it was that day: the higher pressure meant that the fire spread five times as fast as it would have in a normal atmosphere. A new quick-opening hatch is also being designed, and the surprising number of combustible items aboard-including the astronauts' own space suits...
Before litigants against Union Oil can collect, however, they may have to go through lengthy court battles. In a similar though smaller case in 1950, the owners of a grounded tanker lightened ship by dumping 400 tons of oil into the water near Liverpool; they were sued for oil damages on grounds of faulty navigation. Ruling that unseaworthiness was the only ground for such a suit, a British judge dismissed the case...