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air curing ... Airship Industries
air curing
(from the article "tobacco") ...types. Curing entails four essential steps: wilting, yellowing, colouring, and drying. These involve physical and chemical changes in the leaf and are regulated to develop the desired properties. Air curing ...
air de cour
(French: "court air"), genre of French solo or part-song predominant from the late 16th century through the 17th century. It originated in arrangements, for voice and lute, of popular chansons ... [3 Related Articles]
air division
(from the article "military unit") ...squadrons make up a wing. (An intermediate unit between the squadron and the wing is the air group or group, which consists of two to four squadrons.) Several wings are ...
air drill
(from the article "mining") The invention of mechanical drills powered by compressed air (pneumatic hammers) increased markedly the capability to mine hard rock, decreasing the cost and time for excavation by severalfold. It is ...
air duct
(from the article "sound") ...in the design of air-handling systems. In order to attenuate the level of sound from blower motors and other sources of vibration, regions of larger or smaller cross-sectional area are ...
air embolism
blockage of an artery or vein by an air bubble. Air can be introduced into the blood vessels during surgery or traumatic accidents. One type of traumatic embolization occurs when ... [3 Related Articles]
air engine
(from the article "automobile") The air engine is thought to have originated with a 17th-century German physicist, Otto von Guericke. Guericke invented an air pump and was probably the first to make metal pistons, ...
air force
that military organization of a nation which is primarily responsible for the conduct of air warfare. The air force has the missions of gaining control of the air, supporting surface ... [2 Related Articles]
Air France
French international airline originally formed in 1933 and today serving all parts of the globe. With British Airways, it was the first to fly the supersonic Concorde. Headquarters are in ... [4 Related Articles]
Air France-KLM
(from the article "Air France") ...and, after the French government agreed to relinquish majority ownership in Air France, a privatization program was launched in 2002. In 2004 Air France acquired the Dutch airline KLM to ...
air gauge
(from the article "gauge") ...movement of a gauging spindle deflects a pointer on a graduated dial; wiggler indicators, which are used by machinists to centre or align work in machine tools; comparators, or visual ...
air group
(from the article "military unit") ...and often of the same model-e.g., F-16s. Three to six flying squadrons and their support squadrons make up a wing. (An intermediate unit between the squadron and the wing is ...
air gun
weapon based on the principle of the primitive blowgun that shoots bullets, pellets, or darts by expansion of compressed air.
air hoist
(from the article "pneumatic device") Portable tools also include chipping hammers and air hoists. Pneumatic chipping hammers contain an air-operated piston that delivers successive blows to a chisel or forming tool at the end of ...
Air India
airline founded in 1932 (as Tata Airlines) that grew into an international airline owned by the Indian government; it serves southern and east Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, the ... [1 Related Articles]
Air India Flight 182 disaster
passenger jet explosion off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, that claimed the lives of all 329 passengers and crew members. Sikh extremists were accused of sabotaging the ...
Air Lanka
(from the article "Sri Lanka") Air Lanka, the national airline, operates regularly between its base at Colombo and several major cities in Asia and Europe. Other airlines that frequent Colombo include the national carriers of ...
air law
the body of law directly or indirectly concerned with civil aviation. Aviation in this context extends to both heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air aircraft. Air-cushion vehicles are not regarded as aircraft by ... [1 Related Articles]
air layering
(from the article "arboriculture") ...ground and covered with moist soil of good quality. When roots have developed, which may require a year or more, the branch is severed from the parent and transplanted. In ...
air leavening
(from the article "baking") Angel food cakes, sponge cakes, and similar products are customarily prepared without either yeast or chemical leaveners. Instead, they are leavened by air entrapped in the product through vigorous beating. ...
air lock
device that permits passage between regions of differing air pressures, most often used for passage between atmospheric pressure and chambers in which the air is compressed, such as pneumatic caissons ...
Air Malawi
(from the article "Malawi") Air Malawi, the national airline, operates services from the main airport at Chileka, 11 miles from Blantyre, to several foreign countries and neighbouring African capitals.
air mass
in meteorology, large body of air having nearly uniform conditions of temperature and humidity at any given level of altitude. Such a mass has distinct boundaries and may extend hundreds ... [5 Related Articles]
Air massif
group of granitic mountains rising sharply from the Sahara in central Niger. Several of these mountains approach and exceed 6,000 feet (1,800 m), the highest being Mount Greboun (6,378 feet ... [3 Related Articles]
Air New Zealand Limited
New Zealand international airline founded in 1939 (as Tasman Empire Airways Limited, or TEAL) and, by 1980, operating throughout the South Pacific from New Zealand and Australia to Hong Kong ... [1 Related Articles]
air plant
(from the article "kalanchoe") The most common species, valued for their unusual foliage, include the panda plant (K. tomentosa); penwiper plant (K. marmorata); air plant, or maternity plant (K. pinnata); velvet leaf, or felt ...
air pocket
(from the article "air pocket") strong updraft or downdraft encountered by an aircraft in flight. See updraft and downdraft.for more general content related to this topicdowndraft
air pollution
(from the article "China") ...consequences of China's economic boom came under increased government scrutiny. Reports emerged showing that just 1% of China's approximately 560 million urban residents were breathing air considered safe by the ...
air potato
(from the article "Dioscoreaceae") ...is a winged capsule or a berry. Several species of yams (vines of the genus Dioscorea) are grown for their edible tuberous roots, such as Chinese yam, or cinnamon vine ...
air pump
(from the article "Guericke, Otto von") German physicist, engineer, and natural philosopher who invented the first air pump and used it to study the phenomenon of vacuum and the role of air in combustion and respiration.
air racing
sport of racing airplanes, either over a predetermined course or cross-country up to transcontinental limits. Air racing dates back to 1909, when the first international meet was held at Reims, ... [1 Related Articles]
air route surveillance radar
(from the article "traffic control") ...by radio direction-finding equipment. The radio technologies are able to transmit the heading and distance to an intended destination. These aircraft-mounted technologies are supplemented by air route surveillance radar, which ...
air sac
any of the air-filled extensions of the breathing apparatus of many animals. Air sacs are found as tiny sacs off the larger breathing tubes (tracheae) of insects, as extensions of ... [3 Related Articles]
air seasoning
(from the article "seasoning") ...is subject to attack by fungi and insects, and it also shrinks as it dries. Because it does not shrink evenly in all directions, it is likely to split and ...
air show
(from the article "stunt flying") Another venue for stunt pilots was the air show. At such programs the crowd would be entertained with aerial feats. For instance, stunt pilot Milo Burcham (d. 1944), a master ...
air space
in international law, the space above a particular national territory, treated as belonging to the government controlling the territory. It does not include outer space, which, under the Outer Space ... [3 Related Articles]
air space
(from the article "plant development") ...like irregular paving stones, continue to expand in the plane of the leaf after growth ceases in the mesophyll, so that the cells of the internal tissues are pulled apart ...
air spring
load-carrying component of an air suspension system used on machines, automobiles, and buses. A system used on buses consists of an air compressor, an air-supply tank, leveling valves, check valves, ... [3 Related Articles]
air staff
(from the article "general staff") ...not trained as an elite corps; they were individually selected from the officer corps as a whole just as for other assignments. The air force counterpart of army general staff ...
air supremacy fighter
(from the article "fighter aircraft") ...navigating in unfamiliar or hostile territory at night. A day fighter is an airplane in which weight and space are saved by eliminating the special navigational equipment of the night ...
air suspension
(from the article "bus") Air suspensions were introduced in 1953 and continue to be employed on integral-frame bus models. They consist of multiple heavy rubber bellows, or air springs, mounted at each axle. The ...
air temperature
(from the article "global warming") the phenomenon of increasing average air temperatures near the surface of Earth over the past one to two centuries. Since the mid-20th century, climate scientists have gathered detailed observations of ...
air toxic
(from the article "environmental works") Hundreds of specific substances are considered hazardous when present in trace amounts in the air; these pollutants are also called air toxics. Many of them cause gene mutations or cancer; ...
Air Transport and Travel, Ltd.
(from the article "flight, history of") One of the earliest airline organizations, a British group called Air Transport and Travel, Ltd., acquired several Airco D.H.4a VIII single-engine planes (designed by Geoffrey De Havilland), powered by 350-horsepower ...
Air Transport Command
(from the article "flight, history of") As a harbinger of things to come, the wartime achievements of the U.S. Army Air Force Air Transport Command (ATC) constituted a major step forward. The ATC became legendary during ...
air warfare
the tactics of military operations conducted by airplanes, helicopters, or other manned craft that are propelled aloft. Air warfare may be conducted against other aircraft, against targets on the ground, ... [5 Related Articles]
Air, School of the
(from the article "Meekatharra") ...Track, Meekatharra now receives livestock trucked south down the Great Northern Highway from as far away as Broome. Meekatharra is the site of a Royal Flying Doctor Service and the ...
Air, University of the
(from the article "Japan") ...local governments and private institutions, offering classes in general education, vocational training, technology, homemaking, home economics, arts, physical education, and recreation. In 1985 the University of the Air began operation ...
air-blast tunnel freezer
(from the article "food preservation") ...the surface of the food into the surrounding atmosphere. Industrial freezers remove heat from the surface of a food as rapidly as possible. There are several types of industrial freezers, ...
air-bone gap
(from the article "ear, human") ...When an individual has otosclerosis or another conductive defect of the middle ear, there may be a sizable difference between the air-conduction and bone-conduction audiograms, the so-called air-bone gap. This ...
air-conditioning
the control of temperature, humidity, purity, and motion of air in an enclosed space, independent of outside conditions. [8 Related Articles]
air-core transformer
(from the article "transformer") Air-core transformers are designed to transfer radio-frequency currents-i.e., the currents used for radio transmission; they consist of two or more coils wound around a solid insulating substance or on an ...
Air-Crib
(from the article "Skinner, B.F.") As professor of psychology at Indiana University, Bloomington (1945-48), Skinner gained some measure of public attention through his invention of the Air Crib baby tender-a large, soundproof, germ-free, mechanical, air-conditioned ...
air-cushion machine
any of the machines characterized by movement in which a significant portion of the weight is supported by forces arising from air pressures developed around the craft, as a result ... [3 Related Articles]
air-cushion train
(from the article "railroad") In the 1970s, pursuit of alternative high-speed technology centred on the tracked air-cushion vehicle, as exemplified by the French Aerotrain. Air-cushion vehicles use a "cushion" of low-pressure air to "float" ...
air-depolarized cell
(from the article "battery") A very practical way to obtain high energy density in a battery is to employ the oxygen in air for a "liquid" cathode material. If paired with an anode such ...
air-entraining cement
(from the article "cement") There also are various other special types of portland cement. Coloured cements are made by grinding 5 to 10 percent of suitable pigments with white or ordinary gray portland cement. ...
air-filled ionization chamber
(from the article "radiation measurement") Air-filled ion chambers operated in current mode are a common type of portable survey meter used to monitor potential personnel exposure to gamma rays. One reason is that the historical ...
air-float conveyor
(from the article "conveyor") During the 1960s, air-float conveyors were introduced consisting of a platform, or pallet, equipped with air jets underneath to provide levitation. Thus supported, the platform can be easily moved in ...
air-injection system
(from the article "emission-control system") To control exhaust emissions, which are responsible for two-thirds of the total engine pollutants, two types of system are used: the air-injection system and the improved combustion system. In a ...
air-intercept missile
(from the article "rocket and missile system") Developed in 1947, the radar-guided, subsonic Firebird was the first U.S. guided air-to-air missile. It was rendered obsolete within a few years by supersonic missiles such as the AIM-4 (for ...
air-jet spinning
(from the article "cotton") ...spinning (a type of open-end spinning), in which fibres are detached from the card sliver and twisted, within a rotor, as they are joined to the end of the yarn. ...
air-launched cruise missile
(from the article "cruise missile") ...guided by an inertial navigation system that was updated during flight by a technique called Tercom (terrain contour matching), using contour maps stored in the system's computerized memory. The air-launched ...
air-lift dredge
(from the article "mining") ...over long distances where a continuous supply of water is available. For digging in semiconsolidated sediments, bucket-wheel suction dredges and cutter suction dredges are used. Also effective are air-lift dredges, ...
air-mass freeze
(from the article "horticulture") ...produce freezing temperatures are rapid radiational cooling at night and introduction of a cold air mass with temperatures below freezing. Radiation frost occurs when the weather is clear and calm; ...
air-mass thunderstorm
(from the article "thunderstorm") ...moisture at low and middle levels of the atmosphere-that is, from near the surface of the ground up to around 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) in altitude. These storms are sometimes ...
air-sea interface
boundary between the atmosphere and the ocean waters. The interface is one of the most physically and chemically active of the Earth's environments. Its neighbourhood supports most marine life. [1 Related Articles]
air-supported structure
(from the article "building construction") A third form of long-span roof structures in tension are air-supported plastic membranes, which were devised by Walter Bird of Cornell University in the late 1940s and were soon in ...
air-to-air system
(from the article "rocket and missile system") Developed in 1947, the radar-guided, subsonic Firebird was the first U.S. guided air-to-air missile. It was rendered obsolete within a few years by supersonic missiles such as the AIM-4 (for ...
air-to-fuel ratio
(from the article "conductive ceramics") Oxygen sensors are employed in industry to monitor and control processing atmospheres and also in automobiles to monitor and control the air-to-fuel (A/F) ratio in the internal combustion engine. A ...
air-to-surface system
(from the article "rocket and missile system") The United States began to deploy tactical air-to-surface guided missiles as a standard aerial munition in the late 1950s. The first of these was the AGM-12 (for aerial guided munition) ...
air-traffic control
(from the article "air-traffic control") the supervision of the movements of all aircraft, both in the air and on the ground, in the vicinity of an airport. See traffic control.air-traffic controlAn air traffic ...
air-traffic-control radar-beacon system
(from the article "radar") ...in the photograph is a section of a paraboloid. It is 16.5 feet (5 metres) wide and 9 feet (2.75 metres) high. Atop the radar antenna (riding piggyback) is a ...
AirAsia X
(from the article "Malaysia") ...dropped by about 10%. In January the U.S.-based computer manufacturer Dell, already operating a factory in Penang, opened a global technical support centre in Cyberjaya near the capital. AirAsia X, ...
airborne moving-target indication radar
(from the article "radar") The first large electronically steered phased-array radars were put into operation in the 1960s. Airborne MTI radar for aircraft detection was developed for the U.S. Navy's Grumman E-2 airborne-early-warning (AEW) ...
airborne radar
(from the article "radar") A modern combat aircraft is generally required not only to intercept hostile aircraft but also to attack surface targets on the ground or sea. The radar that serves such an ...
airborne radio compass
(from the article "Busignies, Henri-Gaston") In 1926 Busignies received a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Paris and began his career by inventing the airborne radio compass, which permitted accurate aircraft navigation. He ...
Airborne Tactical Data System
(from the article "warning system") ...are at a greater range; and the aircraft can patrol a large area. As in land defenses, extensive computer and display complexes, and communications between the ships, are used. In ...
airbrush
(from the article "pneumatic device") ...with the compressed air serving as the motive fluid to draw the paint into the mixing area. Spray painting usually implies covering relatively large surfaces, such as a building. The ...
Airbus Industrie
European aircraft-manufacturing consortium formed in 1970 to fill a market niche for short- to medium-range, high-capacity jetliners and to compete with long-established American manufacturers. Full members include the German-French-Spanish-owned European ... [5 Related Articles]
aircraft
(from the article "Approximate Strengths of Selected Regular Armed Forces of the World") any of a class of fixed-wing aircraft that is heavier than air, propelled by a screw propeller or a high-velocity jet, and supported by the dynamic reaction of the air ...
aircraft carrier
naval vessel from which airplanes may take off and on which they may land. As early as November 1910, an American civilian pilot, Eugene Ely, flew a plane off a ... [8 Related Articles]
Aire, River
river rising at Malham Tarn (lake), in North Yorkshire administrative county, historic county of Yorkshire, England. It drains the central Pennines and flows southeastward through West Yorkshire metropolitan county and ...
Airedale
(from the article "Aire, River") ...county and across the southern part of North Yorkshire to meet the River Ouse at the border of the East Riding of Yorkshire. The upper reaches of the river are ...
Airedale terrier
the largest of the terriers, probably descended from the otterhound and an extinct broken-haired dog, the black-and-tan Old English terrier. It is named for the Aire valley, or Airedale, in ...
Aires, Matias
(from the article "Portuguese literature") ...and philosopher Luis Antonio Verney) poured scorn on prevailing methods of education in Veradeiro metodo de estudar (1746; "True Method of Studying"). Matias Aires, who studied science in Spain and ...
airfoil
shaped surface, such as an airplane wing, tail, or propeller blade, that produces lift and drag when moved through the air. An airfoil produces a lifting force that acts at ... [3 Related Articles]
airframe
basic structure of an airplane or spacecraft excluding its power plant and instrumentation; its principal components thus include the wings, fuselage, tail assembly, and landing gear. The airframe is designed ... [2 Related Articles]
airglow
faint luminescence of the Earth's upper atmosphere that is caused by air molecules' and atoms' selective absorption of solar ultraviolet and X-radiation. Most of the airglow emanates from the region ... [1 Related Articles]
airi aicme
(from the article "Ireland") Surrounding a king was an aristocracy (airi aicme, the upper class), whose land and property rights were clearly defined by law and whose main wealth was in ...
airline
(from the article "Andorra") One of Andorra's drawbacks-and a large part of its charm-was the difficulty in arriving there. Spain announced an agreement to build a new airport only 15 minutes' drive from the ...
airmail
letters and parcels transported by airplanes. Airmail service was initiated in 1911 in England between Hendon (northwest of London) and Windsor, to celebrate the coronation of George V. Service was ... [2 Related Articles]
airman
(from the article "private") ...class ranks below private first class. The grade equivalent to private in other branches of the armed services in the United States varies; in the U.S. Navy it is seaman, ...
Airmaster
(from the article "flight, history of") ...Among the most popular private aircraft models were the two-seat Piper Cub, powered by a 65-horsepower engine that enabled a cruising speed of about 85 miles (140 km) per hour; ...
airplane
any of a class of fixed-wing aircraft that is heavier than air, propelled by a screw propeller or a high-velocity jet, and supported by the dynamic reaction of the air ... [25 Related Articles]
airport
site and installation for the takeoff and landing of aircraft. An airport usually has paved runways and maintenance facilities and serves as a terminal for passengers and cargo. [3 Related Articles]
airport surveillance radar
(from the article "radar") Airport surveillance radar systems are capable of reliably detecting and tracking aircraft at altitudes below 25,000 feet (7,620 metres) and within 40 to 60 nautical miles (75 to 110 km) ...
airport terminal
(from the article "airport") Passenger terminal layout and design
Airpower Museum
(from the article "Ottumwa") Meatpacking and the manufacture of farm equipment are the chief industries. Ottumwa has a campus of Indian Hills Community College (1966). The city's former airport is the site of the ...
airship
(from French diriger, "to steer"), a self-propelled, lighter-than-air craft. [14 Related Articles]
Airship Industries
(from the article "aerospace industry") ...hydrogen-filled dirigible Hindenburg in 1937) caused enthusiasm for them to fade. In the 1970s and '80s, interest in blimps was reawakened in Britain when Airship Developments, later ...