Word: gusts
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Getting the information was no airborne picnic. The planes that did the job were tough, night-fighting Black Widows. They "penetrated" 1,600 thunderclouds, often coming out with their noses deep-dented by hail. The worst gust encountered blew at 43 ft. per second (29 m.p.h.) almost directly upward. Said the pilot who flew through it: "The jolt was so severe I thought I had collided with another plane. I was unable to keep my hands on the controls, they banged around so much...
...chief pilot, Captain Charles R. Sisto, of Los Angeles. Captain Sisto was riding as a check pilot while another pilot, Captain John Beck, familiarized himself with the route. As the plane snored west at 8,000 feet, Sisto reached down from a jump seat behind Beck and fastened the gust lock-a device used to lock the rudder, elevator and ailerons while the plane is on the ground...
...plane began a steady climb. Puzzled, Pilot Beck adjusted trim tabs on the plane's control surfaces to bring the nose down. Then, still undetected, Sisto released the gust lock. The plane immediately went into an outside loop. Both Sisto and Beck, neither of whom had fastened his safety belt, were thrown from their seats. Two things saved the plane. Sisto struck buttons which feathered the prp-pellors of three engines. Copilot Melvin Logan, who was securely belted in, was able to roll the ship right side up, a bare 300 to 400 feet from the ground...
German emotions were evidently durable, too. From the ranks of watching Berliners came a spontaneous gust of cheers...
...Labor Cabinet (Shinwell was about to be thrown to the dogs. Bevan was ready to move in where Bevin feared to tread). Cried Ernie Bevin: "My God, working men and women! This is the first Labor Government you've got.* Don't let it fall!" A gust of anti-Attlee anecdotes swirled up. Said one Labor minister: "If you told Attlee, 'Look here, sir, I've just put strychnine in your wife's coffee,' he would say, 'Quite, quite,' and go on to something else...