Word: tiring
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...flocks of birds, which have caused problems for pilots at Charles de Gaulle for years. Marty knew the delicately engineered supersonic engines on the Concorde are particularly vulnerable to what the aviation community calls FOD: foreign-object damage. A piece of stray garbage, or rubber from a blown aircraft tire, passing through a high-speed turbine can cause the engine to fail--or worse. That is why military personnel usually scour runways before jet fighters take off and why commercial pilots check their tires. As he prepared the engine for takeoff, Marty's adrenaline may have surged a bit. Like...
...which pilots decide to continue or abort their takeoff; VR, the speed at which the pilot lifts the nose; and V2, the speed at which the plane leaves the ground. After passing V1, pilots are trained how to continue the takeoff--even if an engine fails or a tire blows. Somewhere between V1 and V2, things went wrong for Flight 4590. As his passengers felt the gentle tug of takeoff G forces, controllers in the tower urgently radioed one of the most terrifying warnings in aviation to Marty: your plane is on fire...
...Concorde crash quickly. Both black boxes were recovered, and the wealth of witnesses should make it easy to reconstruct the plane's final moments. Just what went wrong with the left-side engines remains a mystery for now. Authorities will seriously look into the possibility that a blown tire on takeoff sent scrap rubber screaming into the engine inlets, triggering a fire. In 1981 the National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S. warned Concorde operators about blowout risk after four takeoff incidents. Pilots say a fully loaded Concorde's takeoff speed and maximum tire speed can come perilously close...
...Rear Tire Bursts Many now believe tires on the plane's left side may have burst during takeoff, shooting debris into the engines...
...little too much is made of running mate choices anyway. The best thing about Dick Cheney is that he puts the vice presidency into perspective by being neither intriguing nor upsetting. You don't want your spare tire to be too fascinating. And you don't want him to be in business for himself...