Jun 2 1975
From The Space Library
The Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway had signed preliminary contracts and memorandums of understanding with the U.S. to purchase 348 General Dynamics Corp. F-16 fighter aircraft for a total of $2.1 billion, Aviation Week and Space Technology reported. The countries were part of a four-nation consortium-with Belgium-to evaluate the F-16, French Dassault-Breguet Mirage FIE, and Sweden's Saab Viggen as possible replacements for the Lockheed Aircraft Corp. F-104 operated by these countries. The preliminary contract was contingent on a full commitment to the F-16 by all four countries by 15 June.
Aviation Week reported that Belgium had requested a two-week delay in making its choice but then announced its selection of the F-16 on 7 June after the countries had received assurance that the consortium would be permitted to produce, in Europe, 10% of all parts for the F-16. In addition, the four countries would produce 15% of the aircraft for sales to third world countries as well as 40% of the components for the aircraft bought by the consortium. (Av Wk, 2 June 75, 21; 16 June 75, 17; AFSC Release 280-75)
Private industry and government agencies in the U.S. and in Europe were investing money in designs and prototypes of giant dirigibles that could carry cargo and passengers more cheaply than conventional aircraft, Newsweek reported. In May a 9-m-wide helium filled prototype dirigible named Skyship, shaped like a flying saucer, had been flight-tested at a Royal Air Force station in England; a flight model was expected to go into commercial operation within 3 yr. Shell Oil Co. had spent more than $1 million studying the possibility of developing dirigibles to transport natural gas, Newsweek said. The U.S. Air Force was investigating dirigibles as a means of ferrying missiles from silo to silo, and the Navy was studying their ability to track submarines.
A reason for the resurgence of interest in lighter-than-air craft was the energy crisis. Airships require hardly any fuel to get aloft and use very little for propulsion, and they also produce less noise and less atmospheric pollution.
New designs for dirigibles included the substitution of inert helium for highly flammable hydrogen, as the lifting gas, and the replacement of the familiar cigar shape with other configurations to do away with the problem: of instability near the ground. (Newsweek, 2 June 75)
U.S. helicopter manufacturers were increasing production to capitalize on heavy worldwide demand for helicopters, Aviation Week and Space Technology reported, In 1974 U.S. manufacturers exported 420 helicopters at a value of $124 million, an increase of $39 million over 1973 sales and double 1971 sales. (Av Wk, 2 June 75, 114)
Luna 22, launched 29 May 1974 by the U.S.S.R., had been in lunar orbit more than a year. Tass reported that, after 3296 orbits of the moon, the planned program for a comprehensive exploration of the moon and near-moon space had been fully carried out and additional exploration was continuing. All systems aboard the spacecraft were functioning normally. (Tass, FBIS-Sov, 18 June 75, U1)
2-7 June: Three NASA scientists and two Europeans conducted a Spacelab simulation mission aboard NASA's Galileo II airborne laboratory. The series of five night flights was designed by NASA and European Space Agency representatives to permit Spacelab mission planners to evaluate experiment techniques and operations. The simulations, part of a study program called the Airborne Science Spacelab Experiments System Simulation (ASSESS), would provide valuable information on the interaction between scientific investigators on the ground and experiment operators aboard Spacelab and would aid in estimating the training needed by Spacelab experiment operators.
Experiments flown in the simulation mission included infrared observations of the earth's upper atmosphere, Venus, stars, and other celestial features, and ultraviolet measurements of planetary atmospheres. (NASA Release 75-177; ESA Releases, 27 May 75, 18 June 75)
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