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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0978.PDF
1832 Skylab successfully realigned ENGINEERS at the Johnson Space Centre near Houston, Texas, have successfully activated the two control- moment gyroscopes on board the Sfcylab space station and changed the vehicle's attitude. They hc#e to reduce drag on the 85-ton stricture by placing the longitudinal axis paral lel to the Earth's surface. Nasa hopes to delay re-entry— which would otherwise occur as early as June 1979—long enough for a Shuttle to reach the space station and fit it with a boost unit designed to raise the Skylab orbit or bring it down in a controlled re-entry. Skylab controllers, working from the room used originally for operating experiments on the Moon, have fre quently lost contact with the station, only to recover the signals on a suc ceeding orbit. P & W gets $80 million for fuel research PRATT & WHITNEY has been awarded an $80 million National Aeronautics and Space Administration contract to investigate advanced fuel- saving technology for turbofan engines. The contract covers the major part of Nasa's Energy Efficient Engine programme. FLIGHT Internationa/, 17 June (978 *%awp!jjjt;ji-— «v. j 11 yLJ2S «;,»:; BAe/R-R trading results compared BRITISH Aerospace is countering Rolls-Royce's "engines-first" arguments by inviting Ministers to compare the trading results of the two industries. Comparing like with like as ' far as possible in the current 1977 annual reports of BAe arid; R-R, Flight finds the turnover, export,; profit, capital and employment figures and their de rivatives looking like this (£X 1 million rounded off): Pre-tax Sales Exports. % Assets profit R-R 704 318 45 348 17 BAe* 860 536 62 287 65 % 5 23 Employees 59,200 68,000 * Previously mainly British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Slddeley Aviation. Sales/ employee (%) 11,900 12,650 Pre-tax profit/ employee (%) 290 955 Israel develops mini-RPV ISRAEL has released preliminary details of a piston-engined mini-RPV which has been delivered to its own forces and export customers. The 13ft 9in-span aircraft was developed by the Tadiran electronics company and has an all-up weight of 1551b (70kg), including the 341b (15kg) payload. A 10 h.p. piston engine gives the RPV, which is called Mastiff, a cruis ing speed of between 40kt and 60kt, a maximum speed of 80kt and an endurance of between four and six hours. Operating altitude is between ground level and 10,000ft. During a demonstration flight Mastiff carried a TV camera and transmitted pictures to a ground station, but alternative payloads in clude cine and panoramic cameras. The radar cross-section is only about 0-lm3, making the RPV difficult to detect and suitable for photo-recon naissance, real-time surveillance, target-acquisition and artillery-spot ting missions. Tadiran developed Mastiff over the last three years at a cost of around $4-5 million, and is offering a com plete system comprising six'RPVs and a ground-control station for around $500,000. The Catwick-Heathrow Airlink was inaugu rated last Friday by the Prince of Wales. British Caledonian Airways manages the service, using a single Sikorsky S-61. There are ten ISmin trips each way daily, at a standard fare of £12. The service will operate until the M2S motorway, which links Catwick to Heathrow, is complete Memorial service A MEMORIAL service for Capt Michael Lewis and John Hazell will be held at St Michaels, Cornhill, London, on June 22 at midday. The two Civil Aviation Authority flight- operations inspectors were killed in a flying accident in Greenland on March 17. HELP FOR YOU AND US We are flattered but embarrassed by the volume of telephone calls we receive asking for information. We would like to be able to answer them all but we do not have a public enquiry desk and often there just is not time to research the answer. The situation has lately become critical due to shortage of staff and the volume of out-of-office commitments. For general con venience here are the answers to the current "Questions of the day": Back issues These are rarely available for more than two months and key issues (such as the World Airline Directory) are norm ally sold out within one month. Please address enquiries to Book and Sundry Sales, IPC Business Press, 40 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R ONE; telephone 01- 837 3636. Roger Bacon thanks everyone for their concern and misses you too.
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