Word: sonic
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...search for the Affray took 59 days, covered a 1,000-sq. mi. Channel area where sonic gear marked the position of more than 90 different wrecks. Each time, the camera was lowered away. Sitting comfortably in the captain's cabin, the Navy diver needed only a glance at the TV screen to see that most of the wrecks were old fishing boats or coal barges...
...little (4O-ft.) white Skyrocket had waited a long time for its day of glory. Built as a Navy experimental ship, it made its first take-off from Muroc's long, dry lake bed almost three years ago. Even then it could crack through the sonic barrier, but for a supersonic research ship, its performance was unspectacular. The stubby little rocket-powered Bell X-1 had already been dropped from the belly of a B29, and had carried its pilot close to twice the speed of sound (TIME, April 1, 1949). By comparison the newer Skyrocket dawdled...
...mile-and-a-sixteenth Experimental was an entirely different matter. Starting in the outside post position, and carrying top weight of 126 Ibs., he never made it a race. Uncle Miltie finished eighth, five lengths (i.e., 4½ & a nose & a head) behind the winner, King Ranch's Sonic, which carried only a feathery 105 Ibs. The time...
...tried all sorts of shapes. One design, intended to sidestep shock waves, had curved blades, quite like the swept-back wings of a fast modern fighter. Another had a blade with a pinched-in "waist." Some blades were short and broad so that they could spin rapidly without nearing sonic speed. All these designs proved unsatisfactory...