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发帖数: 6973 | 1 Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker, War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as
Bugs. New York Times, June 20, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world
/20drones.html?_r=1&ref=elisabethbumiller
("The Pentagon now has some 7,000 aerial drones, compared with fewer than 50
a decade ago. * * * Already the Air Force is training more remote pilots,
350 this year alone, than fighter and bomber pilots combined")
Note:
(a) Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright-Patterson_Air_Force_Base
(Wilbur Wright Field in 1917)
(b) The first clause of the report: "Two miles from the cow pasture where
the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes." That alludes to
near the Wrights' home in Dayton, Ohio.
(i) Wright brothers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers
(Wilbur Wright (1867-1912); Orville Wright (1871-1948); family root at
Dayton, Ohio; made the first flight on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk,
North Carolina; never married)
(ii) Wright Glider
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Glider
(flew the 1899 kite near his home in Dayton, Ohio; built compoents of the
1902 glider in Dayton)
(iii) Dayton, Ohio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton,_Ohio
(The city was incorporated in 1805 and was named after Jonathan Dayton, who
owned the land)
(c) aviary (n; Latin avis bird): "a place for keeping birds confined"
All definitions are from www.m-w.com, except noted otherwise.
(d) aerostat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerostat
(e) Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Lockheed_Martin_RQ-170_Sentinel
(f) Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Northrop_Grumman_MQ-8_Fire_Scout
(unmanned helicopter)
(g) The standoff in "stand-off weapon systems"
(adj): "used for holding something at a distance from a surface
insulator>"
Compare
standoff missile: "a missile capable of striking a distant target after
launch by an aircraft outside the range of missile defences"
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition 2009
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/standoff+missile
(h) AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_RQ-11_Raven
(i) AAI RQ-7 Shadow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAI_RQ-7_Shadow
(Manufacturer AAI Corporation; The "R" is the Department of Defense
designation for reconnaissance; "Q" means unmanned aircraft system. The "7"
refers to it being the seventh of a series of purpose-built unmanned
reconnaissance aircraft systems)
(j) Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk
(k) The report states, "In March, the Pentagon sent a Global Hawk over the
stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan to assess the damage."
See the next report, at the bottom.
(l) The noun "rave" in "rave club" originally means "talking irrationally in
or as if in delirium."
But the noun also means "a large overnight dance party featuring techno
music and usually involving the taking of mind-altering drugs."
http://www.merriam-webster.com
/dictionary/rave?show=0&t=1308599372
(m) Gorgon (n): "capitalized : any of three snake-haired sisters in Greek
mythology whose appearance turns the beholder to stone"
Gorgon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon
(It derives from the Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful.")
(n) Sphingidae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphingidae
(a family of moths (Lepidoptera), commonly known as hawk moths and other
names)
Quote: "Some hawk moths, like the hummingbird hawk moth, hover in midair
while they feed on nectar from flowers and are sometimes mistaken for
hummingbirds. This hovering capability has evolved only three times in
nectar feeders: in hummingbirds, certain bats, and these sphingids (Kitching
, 2002) (an example of convergent evolution) |
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