Jul 6 1978
From The Space Library
NASA reported that the 200kw experimental wind turbine generator managed by Lewis Research Center had completed more than 1000hr of operation for DOE in Clayton, N.M., and was ready for checks to verify design-life estimates. Twin rotor blades and other dynamic components that had rotated at 40rpm or more (making more than a million cycles) since the machine began operating in January had developed loose or missing rivets and three small cracks, and would undergo more detailed inspection. Although DOE had shipped the blades to LeRC for detailed inspection and analysis of their wear and life potential, the turbine had continued operation using rotor blades from the prototype wind turbine operated on an experimental basis near Sandusky, Ohio, since October 1975. The first U.S. federally sponsored wind system to produce electricity directly for a community power system, the turbine had supplied more than 100 000 kw-hr of electrical power to the Clayton-owned utility system. (NASA Release 78-97)
NASA announced that 35 new astronaut candidates would report to JSC July 10 to begin 2yr of training and evaluation, including life-support and ejection-seat training for the T-38 aircraft, aircraft physiological training, and T-38 aircraft systems and operations. In Aug., the candidates would take the standard USAF water-survival course at Homestead AFB in Fla., and would attend lectures on spaceflight history, technical-assignment methods and procedures in the astronaut office, manned-spacecraft engineering, Space Shuttle program, aerodynamics, flight operations, and the many disciplines associated with preparing and operating vehicles in space. Astronauts, engineers, and JSC management and support contractors would be instructors and lecturers. (NASA Release 78-98; JSC Roundup, July 7/78, 1; Marshall Star, July 19/78, 2)
NASA announced that HiMAT (highly maneuverable aircraft technology), a flight-research vehicle to demonstrate advanced technologies for air superiority fighter concepts in the 1990s, would begin flight tests later in 1978. Engineering studies had indicated the HiMAT would have twice the turning capacity of the most maneuverable fighter, doing 8g turns at near-supersonic (6g turns at supersonic) speeds with no loss of speed or altitude.
NASA and the USAF had jointly designed the craft to hasten the transfer of advances in aeronautical design from research laboratories into flight testing and to expand design techniques leading to quantum jumps in performance from one generation of aircraft to the next. HiMAT would exploit the "undirectional" stiffness of advanced composite materials in its wings and canard (small forward-wing) surfaces, layering the composite material to capitalize on natural bending of the wing/canard during flight. The HiMAT design would combine for the first time the lift of the wing and canard to enhance maneuverability and controllability. NASA would use the remotely-piloted technique it had developed, to fly HiMAT in high-risk flight testing without risking a test pilot and to reduce the costs of man-rating the aircraft. Built by Rockwell International Corp.'s Los Angeles Aircraft Division, HiMAT was one of NASA's many aeronautics R&D efforts aimed at maintaining U.S. superiority in civil and military aviation. (NASA Release 78-99)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
