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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1748.PDF
PLIGHT International, 26 September 1963 Right, the McDonnell-built ASSET vehicle mounted above its Thor booster and photographed from inside the servicing tower at Cape Canaveral earlier this month. far right, the black, arrow- shaped ASSET can just be dis cerned against the night sky as it lifts off under the urge of its ex-RAF booster FIRST ASSET SHOT The first of six ASSET payloads was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on September 18. The initials stand for Aero- thermodynamic-elastic Structural Systems Environmental Tests. The $34m programme, which is directed by the Aeronautical Systems Division of the US Air Force Systems Command, is intended to provide the first full-scale flight data on the behaviour of advanced hypersonic structures under re-entry conditions. Prime contractor for the vehicle js McDonnell Aircraft. As illustrated on page 66 of our July 11 issue, the ASSET vehicle is constructed of various materials—beryllium, molybdenum, colombium, titanium, zirconia, graphite and L-605 alloy, with a siliconized coating—arranged in the form of a 70° delta with a flat undersurface and a fat, rounded body occupying most of the space above the wing. The vehicle is heavily instrumented and, since the plasma sheath during re-entry might preclude telemetry, on board data storage will be provided in addition to attempted real time transmission using u.h.f. wavelengths. A Minneapolis- ASSET VEHICLE tength, 68.7in; span, 58.9in; wing area, 14 sq ft; nose-tip radius, 3in; wing leading-e <!ge radius, 2in; angle of attack of forward undersurface, 10°; angle of attack of top of body, —16°; weight, aerothermodynamic structural 1,1001b, aerothermoelastic ',2001b. Aerothermoelastic Mission Booster, Douglas Thor; length, 68ft; launch *««ht, 109,0411b; start of glide altitude, 165,000ft; velocity, Mach 12; range, 1,000 ; flight time, lOmin. Aerothermodynamic Structural Mission Booster, two-stage Delta vehicle; »«'ght, 88ft; launch weight, 113.2311b; start of glide altitude, I95,000-230,000ft; "elocity, Mach 18; range, 2,000 n.m.; flight time, I7min. Honeywell guidance system is fitted, with reaction jets to control vehicle attitude. Originally it was hoped that launches could be made by Blue Scout boosters, but progressive growth in the weight of the payload caused a change to a more powerful rocket. All six ASSET payloads are now to be launched by Thor boosters, three of them (see data) having additional Delta second stages. The September 18 shot was made using a Thor which had served its time as a military IRBM with RAF Bomber Command. Returned from Britain last year, it was overhauled and modified for its new role by the Douglas Tulsa Division in Oklahoma. This first shot involved an aero thermoelastic vehicle, and it reached an altitude of some 35 miles and speed of about 9,000 m.p.h.; but as we go to press an extensive search has failed to find the vehicle in the impact area 1,000 miles downrange. "Spaceflight Today," a new book edited by K. W. Gatland and published yesterday by Iliffe Books Ltd in conjunction with the British Interplanetary Society, contains fifteen articles from the BIS magazine Spaceflight; an extract from Herman Titov's account of his flight of August 6, 1961, presented at the 1962 COSPAR meeting, and three articles specially contributed by the editor of the book. The subjects covered are liquid-propellant motors, electric propulsion, atoms and space, air-breathing boosters, Tel- star, "My Day in Space" (Titov), Gemini and Apollo, meteors and spaceflight, weightlessness, radiation and ihe astronaut, optical astronomy, the Moon, conditions on Mars, Mariner 2, astrobotany, evidence of Martian life, chemical origins of life, terrestrial and extraterrestrial life, and superior galactic communities. Price of the book is 30s. MOSQUITOES IN THE HIGHLANDS (continuedfromPage5*9) °wards the Western hills (when weather permitted, which wasn't 'ery often) and for three weeks the Mitchell had flown out on air-to- T or air-to-ground photographic sorties. We took off in Movie- toker II at 1250hr on a sunny Friday afternoon, with seven people raoard, plus a considerable amount of camera equipment and *8gage. When about half an hour on our way southwards, at Wft above a featherbed of strato-cu, we heard Champagne ^der calling for take-off clearance for the three departing Mos-m toes, then asking permission for a low pass for the photographers. 1 little later the latter were heard saying reproachfully, through up: "That was too low, Champagne Two." But by then it didn't seem to matter: the champagne had gone T °m Dalcross, not only in John Crewdson's caravan where he keeps some for regaling his pilots on special occasions like the end of flying for 633 Squadron, but also from the air, with the Mosquitoes roaring through the glens and over the lochs, a much more energetic form of flying than that which the civil airport normally sustains. With John Crewdson, "Taff" Rich, Jeff Hawke and Pete Warden, I felt rather like the journalist in William Faulkner's novel Pylon who becomes so attached to the air-racing team whose contests he is covering that he abandons reporter status and wholeheartedly shares their fortunes. The Film Aviation Services pilots may be as unconventional aircrew on the ground as ever put up gold braid; but there is nothing fallacious or showy about their technique or ability in the practice of airmanship and handling of aircraft. HUMPHREY WYNN
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