Word: aircrafting
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Once in the air, the flight engineer must calculate the plane's fuel consumption mathematically and monitor gauges that show the rate of consumption and the level in each of the aircraft's tanks. Circling at low ; altitudes, as Flight 52 did, consumes more fuel than normal cruising, possibly throwing off the engineer's calculations, though not the gauges. Another source of trouble could have been the 707's abrupt climb after the aborted landing. Aviation experts say this could have sloshed what remained of the fuel to the back of the tanks, where the fuel pumps cannot reach...
...Blackwell, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. This can be accomplished by having the Navy buy fast sea-lift ships that could transport U.S.-based soldiers to Europe in a crisis. The Air Force, similarly, should keep a powerful force of attack aircraft that could leap overseas on short notice. In addition, the military should maintain supply depots in Europe . stocked with tanks, artillery and ammunition...
...Navy should continue to play the central role in the global projection of U.S. might, though that should be possible with fewer aircraft carriers plus additional transport ships. It is also time for arms-control talks to be expanded to include reducing naval forces...
...Navy could reduce its aircraft-carrier fleet from 14 to six -- essentially one battle group apiece, plus replacements and training fleets, for the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Mediterranean. That would still allow it to fulfill its traditional assignments of keeping sea-lanes open, as in the Persian Gulf, or striking quickly at a distant foe, like Libya. But the admirals will have to give up former Navy Secretary John Lehman's "maritime strategy," which sought to send U.S. warships into Soviet waters to launch strikes against targets deep inside the U.S.S.R. Saving: $21 billion...
Making matters worse, the Defense Department is committed to spending $124 billion in the next decade for hardware such as the Navy's pricey ($60 billion for the program) A-12 attack aircraft, and the LHX helicopter, a beleaguered program that threatens to gobble up $42 billion over the next five years. Most of this money is not even anticipated in the current budget. As such programs are scratched or stretched out, the Pentagon faces enormous cancellation fees to contractors. Some of these weapons have already consumed millions of dollars in research and development...