Word: preset
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Built on the general plan of the German V2, the Viking has one great difference. The V-2 is steered by graphite vanes set in the rocket blast, but the Viking's preset gyro instruments steer it by moving the whole rocket motor, playing the gas blast from side to side like water from a hose. After the fuel is gone, and the rocket is moving in the last of the atmosphere, small jets of nitrogen shot out of a pressure sphere keep it flying true. The proving of this new system, potentially superior to that...
...course he wants to follow within the territory of a certain omnirange. The gadgets do the rest, measuring continuously both distance and direction and digesting the information electronically. All the pilot has to do is watch the magic needle. As long as it is vertical, he is on his preset course. He can fly where he chooses, selecting the most direct route and avoiding traffic by never coming close to an airport until he nears his final destination...
...commanding robot was a snarl of electronic equipment affectionately known as "the Brain." Everything it did on the long flight was "preset" before the start. In mid-Atlantic, the Brain picked up radio signals from a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. Later it picked up a beam from Droitwich, England, and followed that for a while. When the plane neared Brize Norton, the wide-awake Brain concentrated on a special landing beam from an R.A.F. radio and made a conventional automatic landing...
...Guide Problem. Simplest missiles are not guided at all; they are "preset" on a calculated course toward the target, as the V-weapons were. "Command" missiles follow orders (radio signals) from the ground, a ship, or a piloted aircraft. "Along-the-way" missiles carry equipment which detects deviations from an established course through space. "Homing" missiles are attracted, like moths to a street light, by the target itself. If the target gives off sound waves, light, heat, or electrical influences, the missile picks up the trail and follows it to the kill...
Piepkorn is scheduled to arrive at the school on the 17th of the month, and according to preset plans he will leave this weekend. No definite information as to the form of training he will be given is available...