National Geographic January 1981

They’ re Redesigning the Airplane
Eight decades into the air age, bold new ideas and electronic wizardry are revolutionizing how man flies. By Michael E. Long and James A. Sugar.
Eruption of Mount St. Helens { Mountain With a Death Wish}
A snow- capped peak in the Cascades shudders and explodes, blasting 1, 300 feet off its top, scything down forests and sending ash clouds across the Northwest. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC documents a stunning geologic event, combining a three- part firsthand nar
Eruption of Mount St. Helens { In the Path of Destruction}
Smokelike ash slowly cleared, revealing a ghastly wasteland of slain forest, twisted and tumbled vehicles, buried homes – – and human tragedy.
Eruption of Mount St. Helens { The Day the Sky Fell}
A menacing plume boiled 12 miles high as life downwind came to a halt and darkness reigned at noon.
The Indomitable Cockroach
There are qualities to admire in that much maligned, ancient, and far- traveled insect pest, Allen A Boraiko and Bates Littlehales discover.
Poland’s Proud Mountain People { Poland’s Mountain People}
Fierce love of the land and ways of the past shape the life of the proud gorale of southern Poland. Polish- born Yva Momatiuk and husband John Eastcott return to visit the rugged hinterland she knew in her youth.
Ancient Ashfall Entombed Prehistoric Animals { Pompeii of Prehistoric Animals in Nebraska; Ancient Ashfall Creates a Pompeii of Prehistoric Animals, Dwarfing the St. Helens Eruption}
Paleontologist Michael R. Voorhies unearths a burial ground of ten- million- year- old creatures of the Great Plains. Photographs by Annie Griffiths, paintings by Jay Matterness.