Word: cockpit
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...Chapel Hill and the other Pre-Flight Schools,* academic courses continue, but the emphasis is on physical fitness. Sports stressed are those which feature bodily contact and competitive spirit; boxing, wrestling, football. Swimming is a must: every cadet learns how to abandon ship, how to free himself from a cockpit under water. All must be able to swim three-quarters of a mile with clothes...
...domestic tyranny. Before Magna Charta and King John, Italy's northern cities had won self-rule from the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Florence and Venice had once borne the title of republic. But the trend had been beaten down through the centuries when the peninsula served as the cockpit of Guelph and Ghibelline, despot and noble, rival Spaniard, Frenchman and German. In Milan, in 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte had crowned himself with the iron crown of Lombardy. In Milan, in 1848, the Habsburg General Count Joseph Radetzky had smashed the people's barricades. But the day of Italy...
...Heavyweights. Most favored grasshopper is called the L4, a military adaptation of the ubiquitous Piper Cub with the cockpit enclosed in plastic. The observer rides backwards to watch for planes attacking from the rear. His other jobs: 1) operating the radio; 2) keeping his weight down to 170 (to shorten take-offs); 3) studying targets and fire with naked eye (the grasshopper jiggles too much for field glasses). The L-4 cruises at 70 m.p.h., is powered by a 65-h.p. engine - far less than artillery pilots would like for a quick take-off and climb. Eventually helicopters may supplant...
...little red light in our cockpit twinkled on & off. As the bombs toggled out, Bolzoni sharply wondered what the people down below felt. These are his words: 'I wondered whether they looked up at us with fear and hatred, or whether there was secret happiness to see our bombs come down. Maybe they think they'll be free when we take over, or maybe they'll think it's just another bad thing. That depends on us, I guess. Some of my family is in Italy, and I know if I were down there with them...
Training Thunderbolt pilots is tricky business-one reason why the plane was delayed in reaching combat. There is no room for an instructor in the cockpit. The pilot is on his own in mastering speeds of 420-plus m.p.h., learning how to pull out of 680-m.p.h. power dives that can hurtle the P47 to safety when its ammunition is exhausted. In early days, many a student pilot forgot that a Thunderbolt can dive a mile in six screeching seconds, needs thousands of feet for the simplest maneuvers...