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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0323.PDF
FLIGHT, [6 March 1961 331 Left, Juno 2 launch from Cape Canaveral on Feb- ruary 24 in unsuccessful attempt to orbit ionos- pheric beacon satellite Centre, Blue Scout 2 launch from Cape Canav- eral on March 3 in successful test of the four- stage rocket. A 1721b radiation payload was carried to 1,580 miles Right, artist's impression of the launch of a Dyna- Soar boost-glide vehicle by means of Titan 2 (see news item "Dyna- Soar Third Stage") SATURN TANK CONTRACT The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration has nego- tiated with four companies on a contract to provide 70in-diameter first-stage tanks for five Saturn launch vehicles. The firms are Boeing, Chance Vought, Martin and Chrysler, and the contract is worth some S2.25m. The complete 22ft-diameter Saturn S-l stage will be assembled at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville. Each stage contains nine tanks—a central 105in-diameter liquid oxygen tank and a cluster of eight of the 70in tanks for RP-1 and additional liquid oxygen. Earlier this month NASA announced that Chance Vought had been awarded the contract, with delivery scheduled to begin in April 1962. The company will provide 40 tanks for the five Saturn vehicles, and two spare tanks. DYNA-SOAR THIRD STAGE Our American contemporary Missiles & Rockets has reported that the Dyna-Soar hypersonic glider will have a third stage of propul- sion. The main booster will be the two-stage Titan 2, as portrayed in the artist's impression (above right). Previously, Titan 1 had been chosen, but this system confers inadequate burnout velocity. The third stage is the tapering section added between the fuel tank of the Titan second stage and the base of the hypersonic vehicle itself. A solid charge is used, based on the second stage of the Minuteman ICBM, with a glass-wrapped casing. Not only does "Flight" photograph this provide a valuable increment in velocity but it also serves as the escape rocket for use in the event of major trouble on the pad or immediately after take-off. Dyna-Soar itself has no propulsion, although a system of small rockets is provided for correcting attitude. 12,000,0001b STUDIES Convair, Lockheed and North American Aviation were on March 10 awarded study contracts by NASA for rocket systems with first- stage thrusts of 6,000,000 to 12,000,0001b. Lockheed, at least, may be expected to investigate solid propellant. An exhibition of United States Navy research rockets was held at the Science Museum, Lon- don, from February 14 to March 10. In this photograph Lt - Cdr Adolphus Jaeger of the Office of Naval Re- search shows an Areas sounding rocket to an interested visitor On March 9 a successful flight from Cape Canaveral was achievedby a Redstone carrying devices for the automatic arming and fuzing of a nuclear warhead during flight. A Skylark sounding rocket was fired from Woomera on March 6carrying experiments designed to study (according to Mr A. S. Hulme, Australian Minister of Supply) winds and temperatures in the upperatmosphere. At a height between 100 and 120 miles a cloud of sodium was emitted from the rocket. Today, March 16, HRH Princess Margaret is due to launch the RoyalNavy's second guided-missile destroyer, HMS Hampshire. Like her predecessor, HMS Devonshire (Flight, June 24, 1960, page 859) she isarmed with a twin Seaslug launcher and two quadruple Seacal installa- tions. It is announced by Goodyear that special disc brakes will be used toclamp the elevating launch platform used in the Atlas hard silo (Flight, November 4, 1960, page 707). The brake will provide fail-safe plat-form locking in the event of hydraulic or electrical failure, but its primary purpose is to withstand the dynamic loads imparted during amissile firing. The British Interplanetary Society has organized a one-day course onrocket-motor technology, for which there will be a registration fee of 10s 6d to cover refreshments. The course will be held from 9.30 a.m.to 5.30 p.m. on March 30, and the location is the new College of Advanced Technology, Gosta Green, Birmingham. The BIS is alsoplanning a symposium on liquid hydrogen, which will be held in the new RAeS lecture theatre in London from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April28. Non-members will be charged £1 Is. The West German Aviation Research Society plans to open aninstitute for space research this year, according to a news agency report from Bonn. The president of the society was reported as saying that theinstitute would be headed by a German-born American scientist—not from the von Braun group at Huntsville—and would be located in theBonn-Cologne area. He also said that NASA had offered to co-operate with the institute by equipping an American satellite with instruments orby launching a German satellite. In a US Defense Department directive on March 8 it was announcedthat the research, development, testing and engineering of military satellites, anti-satellites, space probes and supporting systems would infuture be the responsibility of the Air Force Department. Apart from the Navy's Transit navigation satellite programme and the Army'sAdvent communications satellite programme, which would continue as at present, the Navy and Army would carry out only the preliminarystages of space technology projects. Exceptions would be made only in unusual circumstances. The Defense Department added that therewould be no impingement on the work of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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