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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0877.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 June 1961 889 A metallized re-entry vehicle model is prepared for radar-reflection testing in the anechoic chamber in the electronics laboratory of Republic Aviation's new research and development centre at Farmingdale, New York. Other laboratories in the centre include those devoted to space environment, re-entry simulation, guidance and control systems, and plasma propulsion BLUE STREAK HELPS TITAN When we published our account, on May 25, of some of the problemswhich Martin had to solve in firing a Titan ICBM from the bottom of a silo, we did not know that the engineers at Denver were assistedby work done by de Havilland Propellers (as the company then was) under the Blue Streak programme. Our transatlantic contemporaryMissile and Rockets writes: "Studies made by the British in 1956, when they were consideringa silo system for the Blue Streak missile, contributed substantially to early US studies in ducted launchers for liquid rockets, accordingto Titan project engineers. The British first operated their scaled- down thrust chambers on cold gas, later shifted to hydrogenperoxide and kerosine and the Gamma rocket engine. Contribu- tions were made by the British in the areas of drift envelopes andair entrainment." Drift envelopes are three-dimensional plots of the enveloperequired to contain the missile as it leaves the silo, making due allowance for every possible factor capable of giving rise to lateraldisturbances—such as misalignment of launcher, engine thrust- axis deflection, wind and other variables. Air is entrained by therocket flames issuing from their separate ducts, the exits from which could be seen flanking the silo mouth in the illustration to ourarticle previously referred to. It was found that for best entrain- ment the area of all exhaust ducts (usually two) should equal 70 percent of that of the silo exit. SATELLITE SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATIONS Details of Communications Satellites Inc, the recently formedcompany sponsored by US General Electric, were given in London recently by Mr R. P. Haviland, an engineer with the Military SpaceVehicle Department, Defense Electronics Division of GE. The announcement of the formation of the satellite company was reportedin/7/£/?f of May 18. Communications Satellites Inc had applied on May 1 to theFederal Communications Commission, for permission to go ahead with its proposed co-operative scheme for operating a communica-tions satellite system, Mr Haviland said, and hoped to receive an answer by the end of this year. The application was of necessityincomplete because of the complexity of the scheme and the need for inter-industrial and inter-governmental agreements, which couldnot be concluded without an FCC go-ahead. The company hoped to own and operate a ring of ten satellitesin equatorial orbit. Satellite communications would supplement cable services but would increase both the quality and capacity ofpresent communications. General Electric's initial outlay for the company had been $lm, and it was expected that another $50mwould be provided over the next seven years. The total investment in the new company over this period would be $270m, which wouldcover the development period and the first year of full satellite operation. The tentative programme included first satellite launch- ings in 1963, initial operations in 1964, and full operation begin-ning in 1965-66. Active satellites would be used, since passive ones were believedto have too low a capacity to be economical. The GE company believed that every major technical problem raised by the schemehad been solved at one time or another, and what remained to be done was to combine the requisite items of experience into one techno-logy. The satellites would orbit at a height of 6,000 n.m. with a true orbital period of 6.33hr (or 7.5hr apparent period). Each satel-lite would weigh about 1,0001b, with a largest dimension of 25ft. Precise station-keeping would be accomplished by adjusting thepositions of the satellites while in orbit. Cost estimates for the system were based on a useful life for thesatellites of one year, one month of which would be taken up by adjustment of satellite orbit, although it was hoped that a five-yearuseful life could be obtained. It was also assumed that five to seven launchings out of ten would be successful, and that costs per satel-lite in orbit would be about $3|m for the satellite and about $8m for the booster. A drift of ±1° per year was anticipated. Ground-to-satellite transmissions would be on a frequency of 6,000Mc/s, and transmissions from the satellite would be on 4,000Mc/s.The initial set of satellites was expected to be satisfactory for rela- tively short television transmissions, but eventually fulltime tele-vision relay was expected. Up to the present time Communications Satellites Inc had met with overall technical agreement in talks withthe British GPO, but no discussion of business or administration problems had yet taken place. In the company's application to the FCC, 1,200 high-qualityvoice channels were requested for the first satellites, in addition to one television channel. There would also be 300 voice channels oflower quality for use by countries whose communications facilities were relatively undeveloped. Nine companies have been contacted by CommunicationsSatellites Inc for initial discussions. They are: American Securities Corporation, American Telephone & Telegraph Co, GeneralTelephone and Electronics Corporation, Hawaiian Telephone Co, International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation, LockheedAircraft Corporation, Press Wireless Inc, Radio Corporation of America and Western Union Telegraph Co. SPACE RADIO CONVENTION "Radio Techniques and Space Research" is the theme of this year'sconvention of the British Institution of Radio Engineers, which is to be held next week (July 5-9) in Oxford. Sessions will be devotedto radio techniques in space research, satellite engineering, extra- terrestrial measurements, techniques in radio astronomy andcommunication satellites. Minneapolis-Honeywell's aeronautical division at Si Petersburg,Florida, have been awarded the "multi-million dollar" research and development contract for the Dyna-Soar secondary attitude-referencesubsystem. This will consist essentially of a stable platform, platform electronics and a platform-attitude programmer, and will be used tomonitor the primary guidance and provide for safe return in the event of malfunction in the primary system. This star field tracker has been developed by the Martin Co for the navigation, stabilization and guidance of spacecraft. Instead of relying on co-ordinated fixes on a number of individual stars or planets, the Martin instrument involves map-matching against any selected constella- tion or group of stars
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