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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 1559.PDF
FLIGHT International. 7 June 1973 A full-scale, fully instrumented JTIOD com pressor rig has been tested by Pratt & Whitney. The new 25,0001b to 30,000lb-thrust turbofan is under development for possible application to both commercial and military aircraft (see news story) Rolls-Royce project will both be com peting. This small Lycoming engine, which was shown at Paris last week, has accumulated more than l,300hr running time in the 11 months since the first bench run began, and is now well on the way to the l,500hr mile stone. This goal, and the Preliminary Flight Rating Test, are planned for September, and FAA certification is scheduled for mid-1974. The first orders have already been placed, though Avco has so far declined to name customers. Cost of the basic engine, with integral particle separator and anti-icing system, is quoted as $25,000. The LTP 101 ver sion, geared down for turboprop application, was also announced at Paris. It could be FAA-certificated bv mid-1975. Skylab progress Astronauts Conrad, Kerwin and Weitz made a successful rendezvous with Skylab on May 25 (see Space flight, page 902) and as this edition closed for press they were beginning their second week in space. With the makeshift heat-shield deployed and temperatures beginning to stabilise somewhat above 80°F, the crew gave their first press conference on May 28. Despite set-backs,, the mission commander, Capt Peter Con rad, was optimistic and said: "I'm looking forward to a successful flight of 28 days." Next day Conrad held an urgent private conversation with officials at Houston, Texas, giving rise to specu lation that all was not well or that the crew had asked for the workload to be reduced. The space agency, however, revealed later that the ex change was concerned with technical matters and further instructions on the use of the bicycle exerciser. The crew had apparently experienced diffi culties with the exerciser's harness, while the heat in the spacecraft pre vented the crew from using the machine for extended periods. The loss of a second battery on May 31 forced the astronauts to re duce their activity and raised the pos sibility that one of them might take a space walk to make a second attempt to free the jammed solar panel. Mr Neil Hutchinson, the chief flight director of Skylab, commenting on the loss of power, noted: "We have now lost two out of 18 (batteries)— one during launch and one yesterday. If another two go we will be unable to keep the space station going." The loss of power has already led to the cancellation of a number of experi ments, including the Earth-resources survey, and cast some doubt on the usefulness of continuing the mission for the full 28 days. Soviet crews for joint mission The Soviet Union has named cosmo nauts Col Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov as the prime crew for the joint US-USSR mission in 1975. Both have flown in space before, Leonov being the first man to walk in space in March 1965, while Kubasov flew as f flight engineer aboard Soyuz 6 in October 1969. The principal back-up crew, or crew of the reserve spacecraft, is Col Anatoly Filipchenko, the Soyuz 7 commander, and Nikolai Rukavishni- kov of the Soyuz 10 crew. The back-up crews to these comprise completely new men to space travel—Maj Vladimir Dzhanibekov, aged 31, Boris Andreyev (33), Capt Yuri Romanenko (only 28) and Alexander Ivanchenko (33). All four joined the Soviet Corps of Cosmonauts in 1970. Russian steals laser Lt Col Evgueni Mironkine, the deputy air attache at the Russian Em bassy in Paris, was arrested at the Paris Air Show on May 29 for attempt ing to steal a laser rangefinder. He was stopped by security guards as he tried to leave with a Thomson- CSF/CGE TAV-38 airborne laser ranger. After questioning by officials from the French counter-espionage service, he was allowed to return to his em bassy. Although diplomatic immunity effectively prevents action being taken against the Russian, it is expected that he will be expelled from France unless he is recalled voluntarily. The RAF's first Jaguar On May 30 the RAF took delivery of its first Sepecat Jaguar at Lossie- ' mouth in Scotland. It will initially, be used for the training of ground crews, in preparation for the forma tion of the Operational Conversion Unit on October 1. Jaguar is the first collaborative combat aircraft launched by Europe to enter service. Late delivery Due to the break-down of a machine used in the production of Flight, the distribution of some copies was de layed last week. We apologise to readers for any inconvenience. SENSOR Main hope for sales of the Dassault- Breguet Mercure is pinned on a Caravelle replacement for Air France fitted with re-fanned JT8Ds. Pratt & Whitney will need US Government approval of its pro posed international consortium to develop the 25,0001b to Z0,000lb JT10D civil turbofan. Certain mili tary technology might be exported (though not as much as in the case of the General Electric F101 core for the GE/Snecma CFM56). P&W wants design control. Launching cost will be about $300 million. Baseline airframe application is the Boeing 7X7 medium-range trijet. Rolls-Royce's presentation to Boeing is the RB.235, a scaled-down RB.211 in the 12/15-ton class. Both P&W and R-R consider that a ten- ton thrust is not enough. Wire-guided missiles will play no part in the future US Army gunship philosophy, owing to the vulner ability of the helicopter during the attach. Instead, a new breed of "fire and forget" missiles will be needed for aircraft such as the AAH. Avco, largest US producer of boron fibres, disagrees with Boeing con clusions that the adoption of boron composites will exclude other materials of this type. The firm claims that carbon-fibre composites are complementary, and have many advantages in particular applica tions. IAI has conducted an eight-month computer evaluation of the West- wind powered by the Garrett TFE 731 and the GE CF700 and will shortly announce its choice of fan power. Only Hawker Siddeley among business jet manufacturers has yet to announce its plans for a fan-engined model to compete with impending noise regulations. Despite fears about the impact of light fan engines the market for small turboprops is buoyant. Most manufacturers are offering flat ratings well below maximum power to guarantee power under adverse hot and high-level conditions. There is concern that the British Army may try to make economies in the specification of the Lynx which would result in its losing some of its automated navigation and attack capability. No aircraft or missiles are involved in:BAC's Saudi Arabian defence Cdntract. One of the problems is fVriding young engineers prepared to spend up to five years in a desert environment. The provision of amenities to attract and retain the best quality staff is likely to be costly.
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