Greetings Ardith!   
      
    ak>>>  1. in the second paragraph: "But the notion of floating   
    ak>>>  disc-shaped aircraft wasn't considered fanciful by   
    ak>>>  governments and militaries around the world."   
      
    ak>>>  Why the author has not put "a" before "floating disc-   
    ak>>>  shaped aircraft"?   
      
    ml>>>  "aircraft", in that context, is plural...   
      
    ml>>>  "aircraft" is like "deer" where it is both singular and   
    ml>>>  plural... the context used tells which one is being used...   
      
    AH>>   Agreed....  :-)   
      
    RW>>   Any agreement should be based on the previous context   
    RW>>   to the above.   
      
    AH>           Hmm... perhaps I should have answered in more detail.   
      
    AH>           I think "aircraft" is comparable to "deer" in that while   
    AH> some folks may add "s" for the plural there's no inflection in   
    AH> standard English.   
      
   Agreed. Hearing the s added to either of those two words even sounds odd.   
      
    AH>           As to whether "aircraft" is plural in the above... that's   
    AH> the way I read it.   
      
   Me too.   
      
    AH>   I often do get after Alexander about quoting enough of the context.   
    AH> I'm also inclined to a$$ume, however, that where "governments and   
    AH> militaries" are involved the author probably isn't referring to an   
    AH> isolated case....  ;-)   
      
   Since either or both aren't usually influenced by a fancy or whimsical   
   notion, I believe the incident in context is just this case. I'm sure that   
   they could classify it among other, similar cases though.   
      
      
       Have a day!   
      
            R\%/itt - K5RXT   
      
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