FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1969
1969 - 0014.PDF
2 FLIGHT International, 2 January 1969 WORLD E W S APOLLO 8's SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT The Apollo 8 Moon flight which termi nated triumphantly in the Pacific during the early hours (local time) of last Friday, December 27, is an event ranking in importance with the flight of the Wright brothers; it was equally an impressive demonstration of America's technical competence in the most advanced space activities. While the exact performance of the Saturn V rocket — the first manned launch for this vehicle — and the spacecraft will not be known for some time, "quick look" examination has shown that all the objectives of the flight were fully met and that the perfor mance of Apollo has been verified at lunar distances. In particular the various injections (first into trans-lunar orbit, and then into trans-Earth trajectory) were astonishingly accurate, arid only small mid-course corrections were needed. The launch of Apollo 8, containing Col, Frank Borman, Captain James Lovell and Maj William Anders, took place at 0751 local time on December 21. The Apollo 8 spacecraft travelled 230,000 miles to reach the vicinity of the Moon at 1059BST on December 23. It was then placed into an accurate orbit around the Moon while. the main task of the flight—the photography of pre-selected landing sites for America's first landing " next year—was implemented. After ten lunar orbits the spacecraft was placed in Earth-return trajectory. The critical re-entry at escape velocity, 25,000 m.p.h. (all previous manned flights have entered at orbital velocity, 18,000 m.p.h.), was within I sec of sched ule, and a landing was accomplished within 5,000yd of the recovery ship. All is now set for next February, when Apollo 9 will test the lunar landing module into low-Earth orbit. The LM is the last element of Apollo hardware remaining to be proved. Some sources (even inside NASA) have conjectured that Apollo 10, scheduled for April/ May, may be the actual Moon-landing flight. It is, however, almost certain that the lunar module will need to be flown twice before it can be considered to be flight-qualified. There have been a num ber of problems with the vehicle, which was due to have been test-flown this year. Assuming, therefore, that both Apollo 9 and 10 will be devoted to verifying the performance of the lunar module, the landing mission could be flown by Apollo II in July/August, with Apollo 12—the last of the planned flights—as a back-up or contingency mission. An account of the Apollo 8 flight— man's first voyage to the planets— appears on pages 37-39 of this issue. Triumphant trio The three American astronauts who were the focus of the world's atten tion during their voyage around the Moon last week. Seen on board the aircraft carrier USS "Yorktown" following their recovery on December 27, they are (left to right) Col Frank Borman, USAF, commander of the Apollo 8 spacecraft, Maj William Anders, USAF, and Captain James Lovell, USN. Borman and Lovell flew in Gemini 7 during the longest manned flight so far December 4-18, 1965) while Lovell also flew in the three-day Gemini 12 mission which was launched on November II, 1966 Israel's Beirut Attack Israel's commando attack on Beirut International Airport last Saturday night. December 28, resulted in the des truction of 13 aircraft of the three Lebanese airlines, including a new Boe ing 707-320C and a VC10 of Middle East Airlines. There were no casualties, and aircraft of foreign airlines, including Pan American and BEA. were left un scathed. This helicopter-borne attack by com mando troops appeared to follow the lines of the Israeli attack on the Quena Dam and the Nag Hammadi hydro electric power station in the Upper Nile Valley, launched from Eilat in Novem ber (reported, exclusively with Le Figaro, and the Daily Telegraph, in Flight—issue of December 5, page 958). The Beirut attack which lasted about 45min, was militarily extremely effective and well planned, and targets had clearly been identified with great accuracy. Eye-witness reports indicated that the 13 aircraft were entirely destroyed, and there were reports of damage to airport radar installations and to runways (the airport was, however, able to reopen on December 29, only lOhr after the attack). Coming in from the sea, four heli copters—believed to be Super Frelons— dropped flares and machine-gunned air port installations. The hangars of Lebanese International Airlines were among those attacked, and the airline's two Convair Coronados, inside a hangar at the time, were destroyed by bombs. On the day following the raid two Israeli Mirages, unchallenged by Lebanese anti aircraft batteries, made a series of low- level runs across the airport, apparently for photo-reconnaissance. Israeli sources stressed that the raid was made in retaliation for the attack made on an EI Al Boeing 707 by Arab gunmen at Athens on December 26, in which a passenger was killed. The possi bility of a flare-up of violent acts against airlines, following a year of increased hijacking activity, will cause considerable uneasiness in air transport circles. The total bill for the damage at Beirut, according to first estimates, will be in the region of £22 million. As well as the 707 and the VC10 (which was on lease from Ghana Airways), MEA lost three Comets, two Caravelles and a Viscount. LIA lost, in addition to the Coronados. a DC-7, and TMA lost two of its cargo aircraft, a DC-6B and a DC-4. The chairman of MEA said afterwards that operations were being maintained with the remainder of the airline's fleet, in cluding a 707, a VC10, a Comet and a Caravelle. A good response to MEA requests for charter replacements was
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
