Word: rotor
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...first off the helicopter was the fake Arab. He smiled at the guerrillas and wandered around as if awestruck by the natural beauty of the landscape. Next came the agents impersonating the Venezuelan news team, then Russi. In the cockpit, the pilots kept the rotor blades turning. The commotion would create a sense of urgency, making it less likely that the guerrillas would closely examine the delegates' credentials. The running engines would also allow for a faster getaway. The pilots could follow the action through a microphone hidden inside the TV camera, and if the rebels discovered the deception, Russi...
...forces the U.S. military to rely on helicopters, not only to reach remote outposts, but also to carry out dangerous combat missions that thinly spread troops couldn't do without the helicopter's ability to hopscotch hundreds of miles. It was precisely such an antidrug mission that a twin-rotor Army MH-47 Chinook was flying when it went down in western Afghanistan, killing 10 Americans including three civilians with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Earlier in the day, a Marine UH-1 Huey troop helicopter collided in midair with an A-1 Cobra helicopter gunship over southern Helmand province, killing...
...troop numbers have risen even faster, making for a more acute chopper shortage. Helicopters are swift but delicate machines. The physics of flight make them inherently unstable, and therefore less reliable, than fixed-wing aircraft which generate their lift from stationary wings instead of egg-beater-like rotor blades. More critically, chopper pilots are commonly expected to fly in hot weather at high altitudes, where less-dense air offers them less control over their aircraft...
...patient, and took off for Houston at 2:46 a.m. Two minutes later, Kirby was flying 600 ft. above dense forest at 122 m.p.h., near the spot where the first pilot aborted. Kirby lost radio contact with the hospital in Houston. His helicopter dropped suddenly, to 100 ft. Its rotor sliced into thick pine trees. The cabin smashed into three pieces and landed upside down, drenched in jet fuel. Kirby, the patient and two medical crew members died. (See a story about water landings...
...took off slowly, flying over the intramural fields and crossing the river, past undergraduate Houses and Memorial Hall on our way out of Cambridge. The wind, churned by the chopper’s rear rotor, knocked the visor off my face. It was caught up by the wind and disappeared in an instant...