Edge Of Flight

Edge of Flight is the toughest rock-climbing route Vanisha has ever faced. She has one last chance to conquer it before she moves to Vermont to start university. University is a sore point for Vanisha, who yearns for a career in the outdoors but feels pressured by her mother to earn an academic degree. Trying to put school out of her mind, she heads to the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas with her buddies Rusty and Jeb for a final weekend of climbing and camping. Deep in the woods, they stumble on an illegal marijuana plantation, and the gang of bikers who guard it. When Jeb is shot by the bikers, Vanisha alone must get help—and to do so, she must climb Edge of Flight. As she confronts her insecurities on the cliff face and in the woods, Vanisha gains a new resolve and the self-confidence to choose her own path in life.

A leading figure in the emerging field of extinction studies, Thom van Dooren puts philosophy into conversation with the natural sciences and his ethnographic encounters to vivify the cultural and ethical significance of modern-day extinctions. Unlike other meditations on the subject, Flight Ways incorporates the particularities of real animals and their worlds, drawing philosophers, natural scientists, and general readers into the experience of living among and losing biodiversity. Each chapter of Flight Ways focuses on a different species or group of birds: North Pacific albatrosses, Indian vultures, an endangered colony of penguins in Australia, Hawaiian crows, and the iconic whooping cranes of North America. Written in eloquent and moving prose, the book takes stock of what is lost when a life form disappears from the world—the wide-ranging ramifications that ripple out to implicate a number of human and more-than-human others. Van Dooren intimately explores what life is like for those who must live on the edge of extinction, balanced between life and oblivion, taking care of their young and grieving their dead. He bolsters his studies with real-life accounts from scientists and local communities at the forefront of these developments. No longer abstract entities with Latin names, these species become fully realized characters enmeshed in complex and precarious ways of life, sparking our sense of curiosity, concern, and accountability toward others in a rapidly changing world.

Tests have been made to determine the flight characteristics of an F-86F airplane equipped with a leading-edge area-suction boundary-layer-control system, and to investigate the possible operational limitations imposed on a fighter-type airplane by such an installation. The results of the flight tests are compared with those of full-scale wind-tunnel tests of a similar installation on a model incorporating F-86 wing panels. The basic porous-area distribution tested extended the full length of the wing leading edge. Suction power was provided by a modified turbosupercharger which was driven by air bled from the compressor of the airplane's jet engine.

"Edge of Flight is the toughest rock-climbing route Vanisha has ever faced. She has one last chance to conquer it before she moves to Vermont to start university. On her final weekend of climbing, she and her buddies Rusty and Jeb stumble on an illegal marijuana plantation. When Jeb is shot by the bikers who guard it, Vanisha must climb Edge of Flight to seek help. Will she have the courage she needs to help save Jeb?"--P. [4] of cover.

Originally published: London: Electric Monkey, 2017.