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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0626.PDF
f LIGHT International. 5 March 1964 369 president of Comsat and his board includes a former chairman of Standard Oil of New Jersey, Leo D. Welch, who serves as Comsat's chairman and chief executive officer; the president of Kaiser Indus- tries, Edgar F. Kaiser; the president of American President Lines (shipping), George Killion. Once Comsat becomes a full-fledged public corporation, however, it will have a new 15-man board of which six members shall be from the carriers, six more elected by the public stockholders, and three appointed by the President of the USA. Comsat will then be a public corporation marking an ingenious compromise of private, corporate and governmental interests. Further, under the Act creating it, Comsat is directed to seek the co-operation of other countries. One form such co-operation has taken is the international agreement reached in Geneva last November allocating about 2,800Mc/s of frequency spectrum to satellite communications. Since this is a treaty, it requires ratifica- tion in the US by the Senate, whose foreign relations committee already has begun hearings looking toward approval. There is speculation in the US that Comsat's problems will be more in the field of international politics than in any aspect of technology. When the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), representing 122 nations, met in Geneva last year to agree on frequencies for space communications there was evidence that problems would arise over the allocation of specific frequencies to individual countries. Comsat officials take the stand that frequencies or channels should be awarded in keeping with each country's investment in the system. The obvious strategy is to get other nations to put up money early in the game. Yet, if many countries decide to partici- pate within the next few months, Comsat may find itself confronted with a demand for channels beyond its initial capacity. Two other problems are of some concern without complete international agreement. Nothing will stop countries from setting up enough receiving antennas to "'listen in" on all channels, or even to set up jamming equipment, if a country is unhappy over Comsat. Current Comsat thinking is to let other countries buy into the system by purchasing a part or shares in each satellite as it is put up. Britain apparently favours this approach so as to have a role in deciding policy and in supplying equipment. France is taking another approach and is talking of leasing some of Comsat's channels. Germany is thinking of buying as well as leasing. These are matters recently under discussion in Rome among European, Canadian and US representatives. To date the Russians and all other Iron Curtain countries have remained non-committal about the whole thing. To be successful, the Comsat system must of course be competi- tive with cables. Exactly how the satellite system will work out costwise is not yet known, and can only be guessed. There are great expectations in the USA, however, over the future demand for communications around the world. The needs of television on an international basis and eventually data link, both of which use channels in large numbers, will make satellites a necessity. Cer- tainly American Telephone & Telegraph is not worried about possible over-capacity in the future. It is pushing both for Comsat development and is planning to lay new, high-capacity cables of its own at a goodly pace. In 1962 the company handled about 5m overseas calls, and by 1980 it expects the volume to increase to something approaching 100m. Then, according to AT&T, 10,000 overseas circuits will be needed compared with the 700 it operates today in conjunction with its foreign partners. How soon Comsat gets a communications satellite system work- ing well, however, will affect AT&T's plans as to where it expands its cable system first. If Comsat can promise a satellite system in 1966, there will be less pressing immediate need for more cables to Latin America. But, if the satellite system is to come later, then such cables must be installed sooner. Service integrity is a factor that enters the picture in a big way. Communications companies like to have more than one way to route messages in the event one system or the other goes out of order. Thus, even in the continental United States, telephone com- panies continue to install direct lines even as they put in new micro- wave systems requiring no lines between points. Artist's impression (not to scale) of space vehicles which might use the proposed Doug/as high-energy upper stage: (left to right). Titan 3, Thor, Saturn I, Atlas, Saturn V, thrust-augmented Thor and Titan 2. As reported last week, the stage would use liquid hydrogen and liquid fluorine NEW JOBS FOR X-15 A number of new experiments to be tackled by the X-15 aircraft were announced by NASA on February 24. Their effect will be to prolong the aircraft's working life to 1968. They include ramjet research, structures research, advanced flight data systems, ultra- violet photography of the stars, and evaluation of advanced vehicle systems and structural materials. Structures research has been limited on the X-l 5 to date because no provision was made on the original aircraft for significantly changing the structure of instrumentation. On the second X-15 (photograph, last week) the outer half of the starboard wing is now detachable, and plans have been made to test wing-tips made of titanium, columbium and other materials and their alloys, using advanced fabrication and structural techniques. The complete list of approved X-15 tasks is now:— Experiment Sponsor Mission 1. Ultra-violet stellar photography NASA High altitude 2. Ultraviolet Earth background USAF Above 25 miles(inactive) 3. Ultra-violet exhaust plume USAF Above 25 milescharacteristics 4. Horizon definition NASA Above 40 miles5,6 Optical degradation measure- USAF Varied ments7. Electric stick (inactive) USAF-NASA Varied 8. Detachable high-temperature USAF High heating leading edges9. Landing computer (combined USAF with 14)10. Infra-red exhaust signature USAF 1000,000- 130,000ft11. High-temperature windows USAF Varied 12. Atmospheric density measure- USAF Above 125,000ftments 13. Micrometeorite collection USAF Above 150,000ft14. Advanced integrated data sys- USAF-NASA Varied terns and energy management15. Vapour-cycle cooling USAF Long zero-g 16. Rarified gas experiment NASA High altitude17. Simultaneous photographic NASA Above 200,000ft horizon scanner18. Supersonic deceleration device NASA Varied 19. High-altitude sky brightness USAF Above 200,000ft 20. Aerodynamics research NASA Varied21. Structural research NASA Varied 22. Air-breathing propulsion NASA-USAF Varied23. Infra-red scanner USAF 90,000-100,000ft Mach 3-524. High-altitude infra-red back- USAF Above 150,000ft ground measurement25. Optical background measure- USAF High altitude ment (extension of 3)26. SST structural demonstration USAF Varied techniques27. Hycon camera No 2 . USAF Varied
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