Word: wingspread
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...most of its life at sea and subsists entirely on a diet of fish-a fact which makes goonyburgers much too fishy for some human taste. Sailors gave it its name, because it is such a goony bird. One of the largest of all sea birds, it develops a wingspread of 7 ft.* It is capable of flying for many hours without resting. Like an airplane, it runs to get up flying speed, takes off into the wind, retracts its landing gear when airborne, lands into the wind and needs a long run to reduce speed...
...confused with the wingspread of the Air Force's "Goony Bird," the DC-3, which is 95 ft. *This tactic worked admirably during World War II in a similar situation on Ascension Island, involving sooty terns. Obviously convinced that one good tern deserves another, the birds multiplied so rapidly that they nearly took over Ascension, until the Air Transport Command began a program of egg-snatching...
...first man-carrying plane to exceed the speed of sound (TIME, June 21, 1948). Now in the Smithsonian Institution, the chunky (34½ ft. long, 28 ft. wingspread) ship was built by Bell Aircraft Corp., had a rocket motor with 6,000 lbs. of thrust and was designed to fly more than 1,000 m.p.h...
...also probably the noisiest bird; its elongated windpipe so amplifies its hysterical cry that it can be heard two miles away. Pure white, except for some black wing and head feathers and reddish-brown head spots, it is one of the most beautiful of birds. In flight, its wingspread is seven feet; on the ground, it walks haughtily through marshes in search of frogs and snakes, or performs its pre-mating dance with rapid grace. It is an aloof, snobbish aristocrat which sticks with its own family, fights off other cranes who come to poach on its hunting grounds...
...terrified children and wiping blood from tiny gashes in necks, faces and arms, they heard screams and shouts from the nearby hut of the Zavala family. Castro went to the door and looked out. Against the paling sky, he saw the thing returning-a bat with a twelve-inch wingspread. Castro grabbed the bat, squeezed it, flung it to the floor, stomped it to death. When he looked at his hand, he saw blood spurting from a finger...