Indeed, the Air Force was retreating: it plans not to allow women even to train in high-performance jets, arguing that it would be pointless since women currently can't fly combat missions.

The loader's hatch-mounted 12.7 mm DShK anti-aircraft heavy machine gun was dropped, because it was deemed worthless against high-performance jets.

But the kind of training it takes to fly a high-performance jet had drummed the value of patience into him.

Another common misconception is that the Argentine forces made no attempt to use the airfield at Port Stanley as a base for high-performance jets.

Mr. Kubricky said antimissile technology developed for high-performance military jets was not readily applicable to passenger planes, which fly for hundreds of hours without extensive maintenance.

Many of the Navy and Marine mishaps in 1987 involved the types of high-performance jets assigned to aircraft carriers.

For those like Dale Gardner, Fisher's fellow mission specialist on the 51-A mission, who has tested high-performance jets, there is a magical curtain drawn across risk.

Six helicopter battalions flying in relays were raking retreating Iraqi columns under oil-fire clouds impenetrable to high-performance jets.

The Air Force believes only high-performance jets can escape the ground fire of the battlefield.

When invented, the subvocal had been hailed as a boon to pilots--until high-performance jets began plowing into the ground.