Word: takeoff
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...last moment of endurance. The thin straight wings were a model of aerodynamic cleanliness; the raked, razorlike tail added a minimum of drag. Even the landing gear was pared to the final ounce. Light bicycle-type main wheels were aided by wingtip wheels that were dropped immediately after takeoff. Between gliding and plain powered flight, Sekigawa guessed that the U-2 could stay aloft as long as nine hours on a single trip...
...soar in cost. Besides being expensive, the launching pads are vulnerable; if a present-day rocket explodes on its pad, it may do millions of dollars of damage. The pad for the upcoming Saturn rocket, for example, will cost something like $30 million, and if a Saturn explodes on takeoff, it will destroy most of this investment and spread devastation for acres around...
...mixed ancestry produced bright offspring. The Hound Dog, now operational, weighs less than 10,000 Ibs., has a thrust of 7,500 Ibs. The engines may even be used as secondary power sources to give an extra 15,000 Ibs. of thrust to the B-52 on takeoff. The Hound Dogs do not interfere with the B-52's normal H-bomb load; each missile simply adds a one-megaton hydrogen punch and an extra reach that combine to make a single B-52 the mightiest weapon ever seen...
...Aircraft No. 264 was towed to a spot near Runway 05 called "the Christmas Tree," a hardtop strip that is branched with parking stubs, one for each alert plane. The six-man air crew then spent three hours "cocking" the plane so that it would be ready for instant takeoff. They ran through pages of checklist items, threw on selected switches that would bring scores of units to life as soon as the main power was turned on. Pilot Bulli finished his part of the check list, made sure that his 40 lbs. of printed manuals were in place, stowed...
Sentries & Showers. But SAC rarely runs an alert beyond Alpha (crew in the cockpit) or Bravo (engine run-up), never beyond Coco (takeoff position on the runway). SAC does not fly cocked aircraft. Reason: any change in a plane's ground alert status is regarded as "uncocking" and lessens the alert capability. Alert planes returning from a practice mission would be in no shape for a real-life turn-around to actual war missions: if they were in the landing pattern when the klaxon sounded the real thing, they would have to be refueled and their crews would need...