Word: osprey
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Critics had warned that the V-22 Osprey, a craft combining the vertical talents of a helicopter and the horizontal speed of a normal airplane, would become "a stone in the air" if it lost power while making the change from one mode to the other. Tragically, that proved to be the case for the prototype tilt-rotor aircraft as it was landing at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. Just as the Osprey was shifting from horizontal to vertical flight, with its propellers at a 60 degrees angle, it plunged into the Potomac River, killing all seven people on board...
...accident immediately cast further doubt on an innovative program Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has repeatedly attacked. But despite the catastrophe, the Osprey managed to survive a general drive to trim defense costs as the Senate Armed Services Committee made its final changes in the 1993 defense authorization bill. The committee endorsed the House figure of $775 million for Osprey prototypes, though it mandated that only 50% of the funds can be spent until the Marine Corps Commandant reports fully on the crash. Surprisingly, the Senate agreed with the House figure of $4.3 billion for the Strategic Defense Initiative. The committee...
Cheney's crackdown on the A-12 was actually in line with the get-tough policy he has been pursuing for months. He had previously approved the killing of the Marine Corps's V-22 Osprey vertical-takeoff plane, the Navy's Lockheed P-7 antisubmarine patrol aircraft, the Army's FOG-M (fiber-optic guided missile) and an Air Force plan to place the MX missile on rails. Said a Pentagon official of the new procurement mood: "Programs that are bleeding cannot survive...
...protecting gold-plated weapons systems of dubious military value. The House had proposed halting production of the B-2 Stealth bomber beyond the 15 currently authorized. But House-Senate conferees approved $4.1 billion to continue the program. The Pentagon has been trying to kill the vertical-takeoff V-22 Osprey aircraft, but Congress, seeking to protect jobs in 34 states, voted to spend $603 million to keep the program alive. The trouble-plagued Strategic Defense Initiative survived with a $2.9 billion appropriation, $1.6 billion less than the Administration requested. While the Pentagon sought $1.7 billion for six C-17 cargo...
Though the timber industry has zealously replanted over the past two decades, the hallmark of old growth, biodiversity, has been lost. Gone are the broken-topped dead trees or "snags" favored by owl, osprey and pileated woodpecker. Gone the multilayered canopies and rich understory, the scattering of hemlock, incense cedar and sugar pine. Gone the centuries-old firs in their noble dotage. Increasingly, the forests have been transmogrified into tree farms of numbing uniformity, countless ankle-high seedlings and spindly saplings germinated from seeds selected for their productive capacity. The logging operations have tattered the seamless fabric of old growth...