Word: plane
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Cuba's bearded Premier Fidel Castro dropped all affairs of state to take personal command of the search for his kid brother Raul, 27, listed among the missing after taking off in a light plane for a short flight from Havana. Next day Raul, trigger-happy commander in chief of Cuba's armed forces, turned up safe in Cuban swampland after a crash landing in a storm. Just to complicate matters, the rescue plane that picked up Raul to return him to Havana in triumph landed with another crash (jammed landing gear) near the capital. Looking more than...
...week, the first of the new Boeing intercontinental jet transports, the 707-320, whipped over the top of the world to Rome in n hr. 6 min., breaking the 4,225-mile nonstop commercial record claimed by the Russians with their TU-114. For overseas jet passengers, the new plane's 5,830-mile flight means an eventual end to the stopoffs now necessary on many transatlantic jet hops with the 707-120, which was not designed as a truly intercontinental plane. Delivery of the new model will begin in July-and for the airlines it cannot come...
Just as pleasing to the airlines as this public response is that they have put the jets in the air with less trouble than they have had with many a prop plane. Says Sam Miller, Pan American's Atlantic Division chief pilot, who has made 82 crossings in the 707: "This plane has had fewer mechanical problems than any other new plane in the postwar era." The adjustments of the plane's shakedown period have inevitably led to delayed flights and late arrivals. But the grind on passengers' nerves has not been so much the fault...
...American has had only one case-and it ended happily. Taking off from New York's Idlewild Airport, an American 707 on a training flight plowed through a flock of seagulls, drawing two or three into one engine. Compressors and guide veins got bent, but the plane continued its 4½-hour flight without any engine trouble. Unlike the postwar prop planes, the 707 has given the airlines no serious engine problems...
...cleared. American Airlines found that 30% of its flights in the first two months of operation were delayed more than ten minutes and 20% more than 20 minutes by such requirements. But the jets have had less trouble than anyone expected at the tricky job of integrating with prop-plane patterns. And even the routing problem may soon be solved: the Federal Aviation Agency is working on better equipment and new pattern and routing procedures that may give all of the safety without any of the delay...