Word: pilote
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...years as a pilot with Western Air Lines, Captain Charles Gilbert, 53, had made the run between Los Angeles and Mexico City hundreds of times. The last occasion had been in late October, six days after Runway 23-L, which is the only one at Benito Juarez International Airport equipped for instrument landings, had been closed for repairs. Last week, before he took off at 12:50 a.m. from Los Angeles in command of Flight 2605, the "Night Owl," carrying 13 crew members and 75 passengers, he was reminded that he had to land on Runway...
Three hours later, Gilbert began his descent. It was especially complicated because the approach lights on the closed Runway 23-L, which pilots usually follow to guide their planes down, had been shut off. The Mexican controllers instructed Gilbert to line up his plane over an undisclosed ground reference point. He reported that he had done so, but Controller Luis Munguia warned: "You are at the left of the track." The pilot replied confidently, "Just a little...
Heading straight for the cockpit is a habit that Jones acquired during his 37 years in the Air Force. But he is no mere hot pilot. Cool, meticulous, low-key and dogged, Jones typifies the new breed of military managers. Explains a senior Pentagon aide: "The era is over of flamboyant combat heroes rising to the top of the military...
Jones does not win every argument, of course. Indeed, he still bears the scars of the fight over the B-l supersonic bomber. Carter canceled that project in June 1977, when ex-Bomber Pilot Jones was Air Force Chief of Staff and the plane's leading advocate. Carter's surprise decision shook the Air Force. Its generals immediately began talking of mounting a campaign in Congress to save the bomber and they looked to Jones to lead the attack. Jones concluded instead that such a campaign would have almost no chance of succeeding. "That was an agonizing decision...
...aircraft can determine the combat capability of the Soviet brigade on the island, it is the SR-71-the fastest, highest-flying and most elusive manned aircraft in existence. So fast does the sophisticated spy plane move that when a pilot starts a 180° turn over Cuba, he completes it halfway to Bermuda. By emitting ECM, or electronic countermeasure radio frequency signals, the Blackbird can efface its image from watching radar screens...