Science: Sliding on Air

Even before the University of Hawaii's season-opening football game with Texas A. & I. last week, there had been a show of another kind of power and agility at the state's new $30 million Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. Two weeks ago, four of the stadium's six huge, 147-ft.-high grandstand sections were swung closer to the playing field. That maneuver marked the final successful test of the revolutionary 50,000-seat stadium, which uses advanced technology to change its shape and purpose by literally sliding on a cushion of air.

When sports-happy Hawaiians began planning a new stadium in Honolulu eight years ago, they wanted...

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