Launch

“ So they go out and after a few hours their necks get tired; whereas a group of expert fishers in a launch can rest their backs and necks and even fall asleep during the pauses when the fish stop biting.
Anyway all the “boys” agreed that the great advantage of a launch would be that we could get a man to take us. By that means the man could see to getting the worms, and the man would be sure to have spare lines, and the man could come along to our different places—we were all beside the water—and pick us up. ”

“ The landing launch is carefully located with respect to the landing area lights in order that it can assist in marking the landing area by the beam of its search—light and in order that it can be as close as possible to the point at which the airplane first makes contact with the water. By landing in the wrong direction Captain Lorber made it impossible for the landing launch to perform these vitally important functions with maximum speed and efficiency. ”

“ No doubt this launch is usually run by one man, who works her engines and wheel alone. That's why they are placed in such handy positions. If we are not discovered, all will be as simple as eating a dinner; but, if we are, then it will be a trifle exciting, and you will have to look out for the bullets. My job is the engine and the furnace. ”

“ As the tide makes keep heaving in the slack, letting your floating boat draw in sideways to the launch. This strain will aid the water in lifting, as the launch will have to rise with the floating boat. If the launch is very heavy or of scant beam, like the steam craft I mentioned, you had better use joists or spars to help the leverage.
I once took a launch off a rock by this same plan, when hours of heaving on hawsers had failed to move her. Another plan is to lift a boat by lashing empty barrels to the side by passing slings under the keel. ”

“ Those on the houseboat waited for several minutes and then, imagining the launch was turning to the shore, Dick prepared another rocket.
"Get behind the woodwork," he said. "They may take it into their heads to aim at us when this goes up." ”

“ The rocket lay huddled in the belly of the launching tower, her needle-like body quiet, waiting, her control panels flashing signals and instructions to her masters, her circuits buzzing with the tenseness of the seconds before blast off. ”

“ The time had come for the launch of the small vessel, The sight, always an attractive one, was of a kind to excite the public curiosity. And the quays where the people had gathered were soon deserted for the yard in which the launch was to take place. ”

“ The new launch system, including manufacturing processes and production and launch facilities, will be designed to support a range of medium to heavylift performance requirements and to facilitate evolutionary change as requirements evolve. ”

“ The report required by this section shall include information regarding existing, pending, and planned engine developments across a broad spectrum of thrust capabilities, including propulsion for sub-orbital, small, medium, and heavy-lift space launch vehicles. ”

“ Towards the close of a tour of this kind the nights were uncomfortable because of the many that had to be accommodated in the launch. I have never laid claim to genius except on the ground that I could put more boys into one bed than any man of my generation. The launch was supposed to provide sleeping room for six persons. ”

“ The experiments have also given necessary information about this launching. They have shown that the method which succeeded perfectly on a smaller scale is insufficient on a larger one, and they have indicated that it is desirable that the launching should take place nearer the surface of the water, either from a track upon the shore or from a house boat large enough to enable the apparatus to be launched at any time with the wings extended and perhaps with wings independent of support from guys. ”

“ APOLLO 7 "Apollo 7." TRW Space Log. 8 (Winter 1968-1969) : 35-38. Provides brief descriptions of the Apollo 7 launch vehicle (Saturn IB) , spacecraft (command module, service module, and spacecraft lunar module adapter) , project objectives for the first human flight of Apollo spacecraft, the payload (including astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham) , project results (all mission objectives satisfied) , and major participants.
"11 Days Aboard Apollo 7." Life. ”

“ In using this system of lights as a landing reference, the aircraft usually lands from the green light toward the red light and to the right side of the entire line so that the captain, who is seated on the left side of the aircraft, will have the lights continually within ready visual reference. Before the lights had been arranged, the crew on the launch had ascertained that there were no floating obstacles in the landing area. ”

“ Having in addition a living pilot, provided with rudders for steering and balancing, together with adequate fuel for a long journey, it seemed to promise still better results than the model. But an unfortunate accident in the launching so crippled this carefully designed craft that it fell down helpless, without a chance to exhibit its powers of sustentation and balance, even for a moment, in normal flight. ”

“ At this point it may be noted that, with the solitary exception of Le Bris, practically every student of flight had so far set about constructing the means of launching humanity into the air without any attempt at ascertaining the nature and peculiarities of the sustaining medium. ”

“ The parents of the modern flying machine were the gliders, that is, the men who launched themselves into the air on wings or planes of their own devising. (p. 046) The scientific investigators, who experimented with machines embodying the same principle, did much to assist the gliders, but in justice they must take a second place. The men who staked their lives were the men who, after many losses, were rewarded with the conquest of the air. ”

“ Brilliant rockets were fired off in thousands, and countless, coloured balloons of every shape and size were thrown from machines doing the most extraordinary gyrations in the air. They were able to act together in perfect unity just as trained armies do after several years of drill and practice. A hundred machines acting together represented a great wheel rolling slowly across the sky. Others would rush into the sky in a group, and then suddenly spread out like a bursting rocket. ”

“ How are the serpents, stars, fire-rain, etc., forming the furniture of a rocket, discharged into the air, when the rocket has terminated its flight, or arrived at its maximum of ascension? What forms the difference between a balloon, in fireworks, and a rocket? ”

“ All of a sudden, at the blank hour of two in the morning, a vague movement of relief from a long strain expresses itself in all hands; the third officer’s lantern tinkles, and he fires a rocket, and another rocket. A sullen solitary light is pointed out to me in the black sky yonder. A change is expected in the light, but none takes place. ”

“ Five hundred people were picking themselves up from the floor, were trampling each other, milling around, being cast helplessly down as the great rocket-plane, its left wing but a broken stub, circled downward toward the Atlantic. ”

“ The sails gave way to engines, the spars to wings,
the continental coasts to cosmic shores,
and still we see no end to journeying.
Although our rocket shrinks, we keep our course.
We watch, we sleep, our dream a toylike thing
that wakes and wonders—-whose will, which force? ”

“ A ball of light, or a luminous object, had been seen to fall from the sky—or from a torpedo-shaped thing, or construction, in the sky. No one had seen this thing that had exploded fall from a larger body that was in the sky—but if we accept that at the same time there was a larger body in the sky——
My own acceptance is that a dirigible in the sky, or a construction that showed every sign of disrupting, had barely time to drop—whatever it did drop—and to speed away to safety above. ”

“ And, ere my rocket reached its height,
⁠Had flashed my Love the word of me.
Earth sold her chosen men of strength
⁠ (They lived and strove and died for me)
To drive my road a nation's length,
⁠And toss the miles aside for me. ”

“ He has explained the laws of their flight; sketched their development to the present day; shown how to build the flying machine and the balloon, and how to operate them; recounted what man has done, and what he hopes to do with their aid. In a word, all the essential facts that enter into the Conquest of the Air have been gathered into orderly form, and are here presented to the public.
We who live to-day have witnessed man’s great achievement; we have seen his dream of ages come true. Man has learned to fly! ”

“ He who wishes to navigate an air-ship should first practice landing in an ordinary balloon, that is, if he wishes to land without breaking motor and propeller. The wind being rather strong, it was necessary to profit by a moment of comparative calm, and seek a shelter. ”

“ We have already seen how vessels can be propelled by sail, oar, paddle, or screw. We have now to consider a mode of progress which requires none of these things, but which works by means of Direct Action.
Such, for example, is the progress of a Rocket through the air.
The heated gases rush out with tremendous violence, and, by their pressure, urge the heavy rocket into the air with the rush, roar, and bang so familiar to all who have witnessed a good display of fireworks.{463}
A rocket in the act of ascent is shown in the uppermost figure of the accompanying illustration. ”

“ Instead, however, of torturing our imagination to conceive of a rocket device, which would eclipse the performances of all flying machines, let us take one of nature's rockets as the material aid to our imaginary flight. ”

“ As we have traced the development of both dirigible and airplane from the first nascent germ of their creation to the point at which they were sufficiently developed to play a large part in the greatest of all wars, let us now consider how hosts of young men, boys in truth, were trained to fly like eagles and to give battle in mid-air to foes no less well trained and desperate than they. ”

“ Imagine that a battle impends, and that the Commander-in-Chief of one army seeks news as to the movements of some division of his enemy; so he orders the air-scouts to ascend. But the wind may be blowing hard; and if it is, and the aeroplanes are only fair-weather machines, they will have to remain on the ground till the wind drops, and perhaps miss their greatest chance during a whole campaign. ”

“ Nights he walked the beach, and that night was one of the noisy nights. There were high-flying, high-whining jet-craft up there in the moonlight sky and their shadows dappled the black water of the sea. The planes, the rockets, the jet-craft, they were what had ravaged his cities, had turned his railroads into twisted steel, had dropped their H-Bombs on his most vital factories. ”

“ A big meteor tore out your belly, or your fuel gave out, or any of a million things happened to crack up the beautiful great spaceship that was your vehicle and your pride and almost you, an extension of yourself, an expression of your yearning to conquer the stars. So you got into your slugjet suit and walked out an air-lock, if you had enough warning, that is. ”

“ The seats were filling rapidly; ushers were escorting the spectators efficiently, vendors were selling refreshments and programs. A thrumming sound came from overhead and I looked up to watch the materialization of jetcopters and personnel carriers and even a poised spacecraft hanging in a dome above our heads. ”

“ Airplanes laden with scientific instruments whirred overhead, exploring the outskirts of the speeding shadow, tiny spots that grew dimmer as the moon continued her encroachment on the sun's blazing rim. ”

“ From “Oxford and Flanders.” B. H. Blackwell, Publishers, Oxford, England. Special permission to reproduce in this book.
THIS is the song of the Plane—
The creaking, shrieking plane,
The throbbing, sobbing plane,
And the moaning, groaning wires:—
The engine—missing again!
One cylinder never fires!
Hey ho! for the Plane!
This is the song of the Man—
The driving, striving man,
The chosen, frozen man:—
The pilot, the man-at-the-wheel,
Whose limit is all that he can,
And beyond, if the need is real!
Hey ho! for the Man! ”

“ They spread their wings to the wind, and sail by the hour, with no perceptible exertion beyond that required to balance and steer themselves. What sustains them is not definitely known, though it is almost certain that it is a rising current of air. ”

“ What happens when two aeroplanes meet in dire combat in mid-air and one is vanquished? Does the unfortunate vessel drop to earth like a stone, or does it descend steadily and reach the ground uninjured? ”

“ Although successful heavier-than-air flight is less than two decades old, and successful dirigible propulsion antedates it by a very short period, the mass of experiment and accomplishment renders any one-volume history of the subject a matter of selection. ”

“ After long listening you hear the echo of the distant explosion, like the clapping together of the hands of a man in the aisle of an empty church, and if you search very diligently, you will at last see the aeroplane, a little dot in the ether, moving almost slowly—so it appears—on its appointed course. ”