Word: pilot
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...nose north; your life will be spared"). Another dashed off hysterically at plane time, held up departure long enough to fire off a telegram implicating his brother. But once in the air, the conspirators were professional enough. As the Korean National Airlines plane neared Seoul, they held U.S. civilian pilot, Willis Hobbs, at pistol point. Instead of touching down at Seoul, the twin-engined DC-3 flew by the airport, headed north toward the demilitarized zone, 25 miles away, and crossed over into North Korea. Said an Eighth Army spokesman later: "There was no reason to intercept a known friendly...
...still a little air, but it is much too thin for an airplane to steer by. So for controls the X-15 will use six small jets of hydrogen peroxide gases shooting out of its tail and wings. When the X-15 is above the effective atmosphere, its pilot will feel zero gravity and float off his seat to the limit of his belts. Loose objects in the cockpit, if any, will drift around like smoke. This condition will last for something like five minutes, ending only when the X-15 meets denser air on the way down...
...approach to manned space flight is to put a man in a rocket and depend on a parachute or other drag-making device to ease him back to earth. Another approach is to fit a piloted airplane with rocket motors powerful enough to toss it out of the atmosphere. It will have wings of a sort for gliding, and the pilot will land it like a conventional but extra-hot airplane...
Ballistic Trajectory. But the X-15 will not fly into space in this crude way. With a pilot in its cramped cockpit, it will be carried 35,000 ft. above Wendover Air Force Base, Utah by a specially adapted B-52. As soon as it cuts loose with its rocket engine roaring, the pilot will head it on a steep trajectory like a ballistic missile. In 30 to 40 seconds, if all goes well, it will approach Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound) at an altitude of 100,000 ft. From this point it will...
Tricky Return. Return to earth will be the most ticklish part of the flight. The pilot will have the help of special flight instruments, and his object will be to meet the atmosphere at a very low angle to minimize speed and heating. The temperature of some parts of the structure is expected to reach 1,000° F. If the temperature rises too high, the pilot may point the nose upward to get into thinner air and let the ship cool off. Gradually the X-15 will lose both speed and altitude. When it has lost enough of both...