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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1751.PDF
Space-age frameworks: above, a "multiple axis space test inertia faci- lity" at the NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland. Mounted in the centre of the device, which resembles a triple gyroscope, is a mock-up of a project Mercury instrument capsule, and the whole is installed in an altitude wind tunnel. Right, Tex Johnston of Boeing tries out his company's spaceflight reaction control simulator Missiles and Spaceflight ASTRONAUTICS AT ARMSTRONG WHITWORTH For the past two years a small team of aerodynamicists and designengineers at Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Ltd. have been considering the problem of getting a manned vehicle intoouter space. This work has been carried on as a private venture and, in addition t© preparing a preliminary vehicle design basedon the delta planform, a complete flight-plan has been explored. This has included a multi-stage rocket launching into orbitalflight, subsequent re-entry to the atmosphere using retro-rockets, and a final glide back to earth at subsonic speed. The launching technique is based on three constant-thruststages and the thrust of each stage is governed by the maximum acceleration which the crew can tolerate as the stages approach"all burnt." Four revolutions in an elliptical orbit, rising to 400 miles altitude, is envisaged, followed by 0.05g rocket brakingfor 15 sec. The vehicle then enters the outer atmosphere tangen- tially, at a coarse angle of incidence with a low lift/ drag ratio.In conjunction with a low wing loading, this method should allow appreciable deceleration to be obtained in a very low densityatmosphere without encountering an excessive heat input. The protection of the crew from excessive heat depends on theprinciple that any flat surface moving with a large angle of incidence at hypersonic speed will have a vacuum on its lee side.The crew compartment can be situated in this vacuum and will then only be subject to heating effects conducted through andradiated from the flat surface (or floor) of the vehicle. A study has been made of the stability, control and trim characteristics ofa delta vehicle at hypersonic speed. With liquid propellants which will be available in the fairly near future, it is expected thata ratio of launching weight to final weight of less than 100 can be achieved. Any company engaging in this work as a private venture cancover only a small part of this vast field. The objective at A.W.A. has been to educate the team so that they can undertake suchwork if Government support were forthcoming. THINKING AHEAD ''"''" A National Aeronautics and Space Administration committee onlong-range studies has been formed to investigate non-technical aspects such as the international, social, economic and legal effectsof space research and exploration. Chairman of the committee is John A. Johnson, general counsel for NASA, and the members(all of NASA staff) are Henry E. Billingsley, director of inter- national programmes', Homer J. Stewart, director of programmeplanning and evaluation; and Wesley L. Hjornevik, assistant to the Administrator. SPACE FINANCE The $485.3 million budget of the National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration for the 1959 financial year (outlined in Flight, February H) v*as approved by the U.S. Senate earlier this month.On the military side, the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense plans to spend $410,445 million during the same period, of which almost $240 million is formilitary satellite systems. Contracts worth $213.4 million have been placed by ARPAwith Lockheed Aircraft Corp. for the three satellite projects Discoverer, Midas and Sentry. This cost is reported to coverdevelopment of several types of reconaissance systems for use in high and low orbits, recovery and stabilization of satellites andother aspects of bringing reconnaissance satellites to an opera- tional state. Also included in the ARPA budget is $50.2 millionfor propulsion and launch facilities, including the eight-engine, 1.5 million lb thrust booster and the Centaur space vehicle (themanagement of the latter is to be transferred from ARPA to NASA on July 1). MAIL BY MISSILE "I believe we shall see missile mail developed to a significantdegree before man reaches the Moon." This view was expressed by the U.S. Postmaster General in a letter addressed to PresidentEisenhower and many other eminent recipients. A total of 3,000 copies of the letter were printed, and on June 8 these werefranked by a special branch post office established in the sub- marine U.S.S. Borbero 110 miles off the east coast of Florida,and delivered by a Regulus I. The missile was initially directed by radio command from thesubmarine, but in its terminal phase guidance was passed to a mother aircraft which landed the Regulus at N.A.S. Jacksonville.Final delivery was made by surface means, under the cover of a normal four-cent stamp on each envelope. . . ... v We are now permitted to state that the Royal Navy's Seaslug ship-to-air missile is a beam-rider. Although examination of the missile and the radar carried by H.M.S. Girdle Ness leaves little room for doubt,this information has been previously classified secret. The main con- tractors for Seaslug are Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Co.,the General Electric Co. Ltd. and Sperry Gyroscope Co. Ltd., the two latter companies respectively handling the guidance and the controlsystems. The first Polaris-carrying submarine, the U.S.S. George Washington,was launched by the Electric Boat Co., division of General Dynamics Corp., at Groton, Conn, on June 9. With a displacement of 5,600 tons,she will have a complement of 100 and will carry sixteen missiles. On June 5 the Cairo newspaper Al Akhbar announced that engineersof the United Arab Republic had developed an "intermediate-range rocket." Known as "El Ramah 301" the missile was stated to havebeen fired at a desert range. Radiation effects of the Project Argus high-altitude nuclear explosionswere among the subjects discussed at a recent meeting of the AGARD Ionospheric Research Committee in Paris. Some 75 scientists fromeleven NATO countries attended. The successful fabrication of structurally sound beryllium sheet,"which has been used to construct the world's first beryllium structure," -has been announced by The Martin Company, Baltimore. Re-entry andspaceflight vehicle applications are foreseen for the material, which was developed in conjunction with Nuclear Metals Inc., of Concord, Mass.
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