Word: boosterism
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Many airplanes, especially heavy-laden bombers, are launched by booster (jato) rockets whose powerful push gets them into the air without too long a take-off run. The rockets are expensive, whether they use liquid or solid fuel, so the West German Ministry of Transport asked jet-propulsion experts to evaluate hot-water rockets, a prewar German idea that never got a thorough tryout. Recently, Physicist Werner Michely told a meeting at Freu-denstadt that hot-water booster rockets look promising...
Michely constructed a simple device: a strong-walled pressure vessel with a valve and a nozzle at one end. When used as a rocket booster, it is filled with 66 Ibs. of water heated electrically to 504° F. The water cannot boil because it is confined, but its pressure rises to 50 atmospheres (735 Ibs. per sq. in.). When the valve is opened, part of the water turns into steam, and a jet of steam and water spurts out at 1,140 m.p.h. The reaction, Michely claims, can push an airplane forward just as efficiently as a fuel-burning...
Politicians throughout the country have already started making plans for the big push ahead, organizing booster clubs and trying to attract more people to take active part in the political parties. Their efforts will almost certainly meet with some success, because traditionally the American people, often apathetic in off-year elections, suddenly become very concerned with politics when it becomes a question of electing a chief executive...
...sole purpose of pushing the candidacy of a Presidential contender. Most of the current interest seems directed toward Adlai Stevenson. The Students for Stevenson Club already has 328 members, a figure far ahead of the other groups. Eisenhower for President supporters number slightly over 100, while the Kefauver booster club so far has only 25 supporters. Furthermore, if Eisenhower decides not to run for reelection, it is a safe bet that many new clubs will form to back the candidacies of various Republican aspirants...
Nike. In the antiaircraft division, the Army has the well-publicized Nike (rhymes with Mikey), a liquid-fuel rocket launched by a solid-fuel booster and steered toward invading bombers by radio. The Nike dates back to the Keller era and is not the last word, but the Army believes that it will hit any attacking bomber sent over in the near future. Admittedly the Nike is a point defense weapon with only moderate lateral range. But the Army has so many Nike batteries at strategic points that their ranges already overlap...