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air lock

(Encyclopedia)air lock, compartment connecting two different environments, usually at different pressures, that enables personnel to transfer from one environment to the other. Space capsules have air locks to enab...

air mass

(Encyclopedia)air mass, large body of air within the earth's atmosphere in which temperature and humidity, although varying at different heights, remain similar throughout the body at any one height. Air masses for...

Aïr Massif

(Encyclopedia)Aïr Massif or Aïr Mountains, Africa: see Sahara. ...

air plant

(Encyclopedia)air plant: see epiphyte.

air-cushion vehicle

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Air-cushion vehicle: In vehicles modified with a trunk or skirt (A), the rate of leakage is reduced and less power is needed to maintain the cushion. Vehicles designed to travel over deep water...

Yeager, Chuck

(Encyclopedia)Yeager, Chuck (Charles Elwood Yeager) yāˈgər [key], 1923–2020, American aviator, b. Myra, W.Va. An ace fighter pilot during World War II, he was a military test pilot during the early postwar yea...

United Irishmen

(Encyclopedia)United Irishmen or United Irish Society, Irish political organization. It was founded at Belfast in 1791 by Theobald Wolfe Tone. Disgruntled by the use of English patronage to control Irish politics, ...

Virginia, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Virginia, state of the S Middle-Atlantic United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), North Carolina and Tennessee (S), Kentucky and West Virginia (W), and Maryland and the District...

Hawaii, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Hawaii həwīˈē, häväˈē [key], 50th state of the United States, comprising a group of eight major islands and numerous islets in the central Pacific Ocean, c.2,100 mi (3,380 km) SW of San...

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