Word: takeoff
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...hour wind blew from the northwest. As New York waited to welcome Astronaut John Glenn, American Airlines' Flight One-nonstop to Los Angeles-screamed down the runway of International Airport at Idlewild, consuming a normal 5,000 feet of concrete before it left the ground in a perfect takeoff. Two minutes later, the flight of American One was over-and so were the lives of its 95 passengers and crew members. It was the worst tragedy involving a single plane in the history of U.S. commercial aviation...
...enough to give a motorcycle cop ulcers. On the slick asphalt pavement, the cut-down, exhaust-blatting hot rods stood poised for takeoff. Hunched over steering wheels, leather-masked drivers squinted through their goggles as the crowd shouted: "Stripe it, Chevy!" "Twist him off!" At the signal, the cars roared away-but not to the wail of a police siren. In Pomona, Calif., last week, the country's foremost hot-rodders were holding their Winternational Drag Racing championships before 39,000 cheering auto buffs...
...Shorty Powers in the limelight, too. He would be the last to mind. Well aware of his role, he cultivates the deep, composed voice that, to a tense world last week, suggested that the nation's first attempt at manned orbit was no more critical than a takeoff from Idlewild. "I must not raise my voice," says Shorty Powers. "I must give the people an objective report without any display of emotion. Millions will be hanging on my every word.'' As a matter of fact, millions...
Ready for Take-Off. What Hesburgh inherited was a university ready for takeoff. Father Cavanaugh, a onetime Studebaker salesman who dreamed of a grown-up university, had sold the necessity of change not only to his conservative congregation but also to the standpat alumni. Money began to flow, buildings to rise. Though 80% of Notre Dame's 30,000 alumni have graduated since 1940, and few are rich, they have chipped in at the rate of $700,000 a year, may hit $1,000,000 this year-a considerable feat considering what they also give to parochial schools...
...waterborne Belchen paid no attention to the eager marksmen closing in for the kill. At a range of less than 20 yds., the hunters opened fire. The few Belchen that tried to escape were blasted out of the sky or cut down before they could finish their flailing, loonlike takeoff. The rest of the birds were slaughtered where they sat. Boat oars were used to administer the coup de grâce. Explained one hunter: "If we waited for them to get into the air, we could wait all day. They won't fly unless they absolutely have...