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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1569.PDF
768 FLIGHT, 5 June 1959 Left, launch of the Jupiter rocket which carried monkeys Able and Baker on their flight from Cape Canaveral on May 28. At their Wash- ington press confer- ence on May 30 the two space travellers (Able, centre, and Baker, right) posed for photographers on top of their respec- tive compartments. See first news item on this page Missiles and Spaceflight INTERMEDIATE-RANGE BALLISTIC MONKEYS Two female monkeys were recovered in good health on May 28after a 1,500-mile flight in the nose-cone of a Jupiter IRBM fired from Cape Canaveral over the Atlantic Missile Range. Thelaunching took place at 3.35 a.m. local time and a maximum altitude of 300 miles was attained. The two animals, named Able and Baker, were housed inseparate compartments in the nose-cone. The larger of the two was Able, a 7-lb Rhesus monkey who had been conditioned toreact to a flashing red light by pressing a morse key. She was strapped on to a contoured glass-fibre couch padded with foamrubber, wore a protective suit and was equipped with earphones. The couch was fitted inside an air-conditioned and heated con-tainer located in the centre of the nose-cone. The second passenger, Baker, was a one-pound squirrel monkeywho made the trip on a contoured couch in a smaller chamber attached to the inside of the nose-cone close to its base. Theheart-beats, muscular reaction, pulse rate, body temperature and breathing rate of each of the animals was measured throughout theflight and telemetered to ground stations, as were the internal tem- perature, pressure and humidity of the capsules. A radio defectin the nose-cone equipment prevented completion of Abie's "psycho-behavioural" morse-key test. Also carried in the nose-cone were samples of animal andvegetable matter representing various cellular groups. Specimens of yeast, corn, mustard seed, fruit fly larvae and human bloodwere included, in an experiment to determine the effect on them of high-altitude radiation. Another experiment, which employedthe eggs and sperm of sea urchins, was to examine the processes of fertilization under conditions of weightlessness, a phase whichlasted some 9 min during this 15 min flight. The Jupiter was fired from Cape Canaveral by the U.S. Army,and the nose-cone was recovered by the U.S. Navy tug Kiowa in the target area 30-60 miles north of Antigua. The nose-cone wasreported to have come down five miles from the recovery ship. The successful completion of this experiment will provide valuableinformation for the Project Mercury man-in-space programme of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: the Mercuryastronauts are scheduled to make similar ballistic flights prior to the attempt to place the first U.S. manned satellite in orbit. SPACE PLANNERS First meeting of the steering group which is to guide Britain'sspace-research programme was held on May 27. The chairman of the group is Sir Edward Bullard, and the other members are Prof.W. V. D. Hodge, secretary of the Royal Society; Prof. H. S. W. Massey of University College, London; Sir Harry Melville, secre-tary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research; Sir Graham Sutton, director-general of the Meteorological Office; Dr.R. van der R. Woolley, Astronomer Royal; and senior officials of other interested Government departments. HAWK COLD TESTS : - During the coming winter it is intended to put the completeRaytheon Hawk anti-aircraft missile system through a cold- weather test programme at Ft. Churchill, Manitoba. The U.S.Army will be assisted in the work by the Canadian Army, and it is unofficially considered that the missile may be operationallydeployed in Arctic areas. Earlier this year plans for siting Hawk within the metropolitan United States were cancelled,but the weapon is likely to be used by the U.S. 7th Army in Europe and will be manufactured by a NATO consortium.On May 22 it was announced in Washington—by Mr. Charles Shuff, deputy assistant secretary of defence for internationalsecuriry affairs—that the Hawk anti-aircraft missile would be assembled under licence in France, West Germany, Italy, Holland,Belgium and Japan. R.Ae.S. SECTION PLANS Major lectures planned for the coming year by the Astronauticsand Guided Flight Section of the Royal Aeronautical Society include as subjects the optimum size of rocket engines, problemsof air-to-air missiles, upper-atmosphere research and electronic trends in the missile field. Other talks and discussions are to bearranged on topics such as high-altitude rocket and satellite vehicles, automatic control mechanisms, communication theoryand its application to missile guidance, and interplanetary navigation. At the annual general meeting of the section in London onWednesday, May 27, the section chairman, Sir George Gardner, announced that membership now totalled 449, an increase of 131over the figure for May 1958. Average attendance at lectures was approximately 180, of whom about half were guests. U.S. ARMY DEFENDS HERCULES Understandably, the U.S. Army have protested at the decision ofthe Senate Armed Services Committee to reduce from $22.4m to $5.1m the current appropriation for Nike Hercules missilesystems. The Committee also cancelled plans already approved for the installation by the U.S. Army of 50 Hercules batteries inthe United States and eight in Hawaii. An Army spokesman said that the Committee's action wouldmean the termination of production of all equipment for 54 Hercules batteries, and that thousands of skilled men employed by24 contractors and 5,000 sub-contractors would be "lost to the development and production effort." A NOTE ON HOUND DOG The North American GAM-77 Hound Dog missile was recentlyexhibited for the first time. A round displayed in Washington was seen to have a curious type of variable propulsive nozzleso that the thrust and turbine temperature of the Pratt & Whitney J52 engine can be modulated to improve efficiency during differentflight regimes. It could also be seen that the missile is controlled by a canard foreplane and wing-mounted ailerons. The fin is fixed.According; to Aviation Week the engine is to undergo a full 150 hr qualification test so that the powerplants of both HoundDogs carried by a B-52G may be used to provide additional thrust throughout the take-off of die bomber. Another improvementreported by our American contemporary is that the exhaust nozzle will be redesigned to match the Hound Dog low-level missionrequirement. On May 27 the first IM-99B "advanced" Botnarc was fired success-fully on a 100-mile mission from Cape Canaveral. A photograph of a B model appeared in our issue of May 22. In order to increase their strength in the electronics field, Lockheed'sMissiles and Space Division have announced their intention of merging with Stavid Engineering, a major military electronics contractor. John A. Drake, Director of the Astro Division of Marquardt AircraftCompany, has been appointed to the research advisory committee on chemical energy processes of the N.A.S.A.
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