CNN 2012-08-18

 We’re going to start in the air. Flight from New York to London usually takes around seven and a half hours. The U.S. Air Force is working on a type of vehicle that could make that trip in less than one hour. Yesterday, they took this thing out on a test flight. We have this animation 1 that shows how it was supposed to go. This plane is carrying the X51A Wave Rider. You can see it there underneath 2 the wing. The idea was for the Wave Rider to drop off(脱离) the other plane and then show what it’s made for(制造目标). Wave Rider is a hypersonic aircraft. That basically means it’s fast. 4,500 miles per hour fast. It’s six times the speed of sound. The goal for yesterday’s test was for the Wave Rider to go that fast for 300 seconds. It’s not the vehicle’s first test flight. Some of the previous ones didn’t go very well and they had to be shut down(关闭) early. 

 
 
 
Cars have been doing better and better in crash tests for years. But on this one, eight out of the 11 car models that were tested, failed. Here is what’s different about this test: the car is hitting the barrier with just a quarter of the front bumper 3. It’s called a small overlap 4 impact(小部分接触撞击), and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the group that’s running this test, says it’s the most dangerous kind of frontal car crash. Most of the car companies that did poorly on this test pointed 5 out that their vehicle still meet all federal safety standards and that they’ve done well with other tests. But the companies also promised to do better on this specific test with future models.
 
 
 
More than 60 wild fires are burning across parts of the Western U.S. California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington and Idaho are all dealing 6 with this right now. The flames you are seeing here are from a pair of fires in California. Officials said those were about 30 percent contained on Tuesday. But in Washington State, one official described the fire conditions as extreme. Dozens of houses have been destroyed, hundreds of people have been told to leave their homes, to get away from the flames. Authorities are working to get help from the National Guard to fight these fires.
 
 
 
17 months, that’s how long violence has been going on in Syria. It started out as protest against the country’s government. People were calling for Syria’s president to leave office. But in the time since then, it’s erupted into a civil war with deadly fighting between forces from the military and the opposition 7. Some of the recent violence has been in the city of Aleppo. It’s the largest city in Syria, and Ben Wedeman looks at what life is like for some of the people who live in the middle of a battleground.
 
 
 
The line between live and death in Aleppo is perilously 8 thin.
 
 
 
Salam aleikum!
 
 
 
Just one block away I met Hanadi who insists she and her family of six will not leave. 
 
 
 
I asked her where the front line is, but she brushes off the question saying she has become accustomed to the shelling.
 
 
 
Her son, one-and a half year old, Abdul Hani, seems confused and squeezes my hand tightly.
 
 
 
A two minute walk down the street an apartment building was hit in an air strike.
 
 
 
This building, or rather what’s left of this building, which really isn’t much, is in an area where civilians 9 are still living. And, of course, among the ruins we found a French book, and somebody’s studying English, "The Life of William Shakespeare."
 
 
 
A rocket slammed into another building in the nearby Sikkari district wounding two, raining rubble 10 into the street.
 
 
 
All the while government helicopters hover 11 menacingly overhead, and jets dropped bombs on rebel-controlled neighborhoods.
 
 
 
The trappings(服饰、马饰；外观) of daily life in this city under siege have disappeared. Even the simple act of crossing the street requires a strong heart and fast feet; the sniper’s bullet is just a crack away. 
 
 
 
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Aleppo, Syria.