Wind dummy

Posted by Lewis on June 02, 2003

In Reply to: Wind dummy posted by ESC on May 23, 2003

: WIND DUMMY - "(U.S.) Secretary of State Colin Powell once dubbed Christie Todd Whitman, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, as the Bush administration's 'wind dummy.' The reference is to a military term for tossing a dummy out of an airplane to see which way the wind is blowing over a landing zone." From an editorial, "Whitman's Rough Ride," The Courier Journal, Louisville (Ky.), May 23, 2003.

Are you sure about that?
Normally wind direction is measured in other ways - flares are usually pretty good and are the standard for aeronautic displays and parachute jumps. How likely is is that an aircraft would contain a few mannequins just in case or use up vital space that way?

I doubt that a "wind-dummy" is what is described - mind you, weird things happen.