Word: propped
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Overhead, the big, slow EC-121s still fly the Sea of Japan, listening in on Communist electronic transmissions. Though the four-engine prop planes are now protected by U.S. jets based in South Korea, the North Koreans could shoot down another EC-121 any time they wished. The spy flights come within 4½ minutes' flying time of North Korean air bases, which could scramble more than enough MIGS to down the F-4 and F106 jets that are used to escort the spy planes. Protecting the AGERS seems equally futile. Despite contingency plans designed to rescue...
Conservative Ploy. Labor's backbenchers, a traditionally insecure lot, are plainly worried that the issue of union reform may cost them their jobs. Without the prop of union treasuries and union electoral support, Labor candidates would virtually lose by default. In this dire situation, some backbenchers began wondering aloud in the corridors whether Labor might employ a favorite Conservative Party tactic-that of changing Prime Ministers whenever party popularity plummets. This ploy enables the party to shift the blame for past errors onto the shoulders of the outgoing leader...
SINCE the monetary crisis of last fall, the main prop under the French franc has been the stubborn pride of Charles de Gaulle. Now, without his formidable non, talk of devaluation of the Continent's weakest currency has assumed a new tone of inevitability. Even the West Germans seem ready to assist in a broader change of currencies by increasing the value of the robust mark. The only real question in France is when and how much...
...less spectacular type of spy plane is the slower patrol aircraft that measures radar capabilities and eavesdrops obliquely on enemy radio communications from a distance. The plodding, prop-driven EC-121 shot down by North Korean MIGs last week is a military version of the Super Constellation airliner. The EC-121 is an ungainly bird, its basically graceful lines awkwardly broken by wartlike plastic radar domes above and below the fuselage. Four piston engines give it a cruising speed of only 300 m.p.h., but it has immense range. It can fly 6,500 miles, staying aloft for more than...
...setting for a good Saturday matinee must be carefully selected. The theater should be old, cavernous and dirty, with lots of balcony railing to prop sneakers on. The popcorn butter should be on the congealed side, and the popcorn itself sold in hard wax containers, which, when stomped, produce a report like an 18th century cannon. The candy counter should be well stocked with small, hard sweets that can be hurled at antagonists below...