Word: takeoff
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...lake region of Argentina, threaded through the Andes ("with the Christ of the Andes above my head"). One day he set the plane down in the ocean about 50 miles off the coast of Ecuador ("I got very thirsty"). But when he tried to handcrank his engine for a takeoff, the inertial starter clutch failed. "There I was," he says, "drifting to Honolulu. I cranked myself to exhaustion." After long minutes of finger drumming, Quesada suddenly recalled an old aviator's superstition. He went back and urinated on the tail. Naturally, the engine started up with the next turn...
Command Decision. Another recent incident that blew up a storm occurred last month, when a National Airlines pilot was rolling his 707 down a Miami runway. Suddenly one engine flamed out. Though the plane was within three or four knots of critical takeoff speed and thus technically should have aborted, it looked to the pilot as if such action would almost certainly lead to a crackup. Making his decision in an instant, the National pilot kept going, lifted the plane off the ground, circled around and landed safely. Still, an accompanying FAA flight inspector filed a complaint against the pilot...
...nuclear physics must be struck by the Biblical description of Sodom and Gomorrah." The Soviet co-authors "transcribed" the Biblical passage into modern language and decided that the columns of smoke, the fire and brimstone that destroyed the cities resulted from the blast "caused by the cosmonauts, who, before takeoff, arranged to blow up dumps of extra nuclear fuel after first warning the surrounding inhabitants" to flee. Those who looked back (e.g., Lot's wife) "were blinded and perished." A little nervously, the Literary Gazette prefaced this saucer-eyed silliness with the caveat that it "stands on the borderline...
Standing beside an F-105 jet fighter-bomber and ready for takeoff, it could have been the ghost of the old Flying Tiger himself, General Claire L Chennault, who died last year. There was good reason for the startling resemblance. The craggy-faced general's craggy-faced son, Air Force Major Claire P. Chennault, 38, is 17-year veteran of the service, has two brothers, Colonel John and Master...
...N3195N cleared for immediate takeoff," radioed the control tower. In the Harvard Flying Club's Cessna 120, N. De J. Portocarrero '61 taxied on to the runway and pulled back the throttle. Seconds later, the two-seater left Bedford Airport, making a wide turn toward Cambridge. As the plane droned over route 128 and the lakes and farms of Lexington, Portocarrero explained the instrument panel: airspeed--100 m.p.m., direction--south-east, altitude--1500 feet...