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AUTOGYROS IN SONG, LEGEND AND THE NEWS
OUTSPOKEN ENTHUSIASTS of fixed-wing aircraft claim that helicopters don’t really fly, they’re just so ugly that the Earth repels them. I wonder if this same opinion applies to another form of...
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THE DANUBE
THE BEST travel books offer historical nuggets and personal insights as well as trip details. Nick Thorpe’s The Danube is a fine example. The Danube: A Journey Upriver from the Black Sea to the Black...
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SARAH BRIGHTMAN—COSMONAUT
THE WOMAN loved by the Phantom of the Opera has fallen in love with space tourism. And not just the concept, but the actual thing. Classical crossover/musicial theater soprano Sarah Brightman is in...
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AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER MADE OF ICE?
I WAS researching the aircraft of Sir Winston Churchill (a tale that’ll appear anon) when I encountered the story of a proposed World War II aircraft carrier made of ice. An eccentric Englishman came...
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THE ROADS OF ROSE AND RAKEMAN
AS PART of the U.S. Sesquicentennial in 1926, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads assembled an historical exhibit on American roads. Its dioramas evolved into a book published in the U.S. Bicentennial...
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NOËL COWARD SAYS
NOËL COWARD was the most flamboyant wit of the 20th century. As confirmed in A Last Encore, he was also a rare combination of social satirist and patriot. A Last Encore , edited by John Hatfield;...
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LANCIA BETA MONTECARLO GROUP 5 TURBO
MY FIRST drive of an out-and-out competition car was dually memorable. The machine was the 1981 Lancia Beta Montecarlo Group 5 Turbo, two-thirds of the way to its triple crown in the FIA World...
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PIËCH’S 917
FERDINAND PIËCH, who was ousted from Volkswagen AG’s supervisory board on April 25, 2015, carefully chose—and won—many of his other battles. An example concerns the all-conquering Porsche 917 and its...
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A SELECTION OF PANS
THANKS TO Groucho Marx, I offer a nonsensical rhymed couplet (in iamic heptameter): “I soon dispose of all of those who put me on the pan/Like Shakespeare said to Nathan Hale, I always get my man.” On...
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A TRIO OF THREE-POINT RACERS
A HYDROPLANE is the high-performance sports machine of the aquatic world. Because of its specially contoured hull, once the craft is “on plane” it touches the water in only three points, a lateral pair...
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