Sep 19 1966
From The Space Library
NASA Aerobee 150 launched from WSMR reached 102-mi. (165km.) altitude in GSFC-Princeton Univ. Observatory experiment to study ultraviolet radiation from the star Epsilon Canis Majoris. Although spectrograph recording was limited by rocket’s low altitude, good spectral resolution was obtained and wavelength limit was extended shortward to lines never before observed. ‘‘(NASA Rpt. SRL)’’
Crew of Gemini 11, Charles Conrad and Richard F. Gordon are debriefed.
Proposal by Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences to establish nonmilitary global navigation system had been rejected by interdepartmental committee after two-year study. Leonard Jaffe, Director of NASA’s Communication and Navigation Programs Div., and chairman of the committee, said in interview with Aviation Week that further research and development were required. “Low-keyed” study effort planned by NASA would include award of more feasibility study contracts to industry and test of navigation equipment on Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) mission, during which voice transmissions would be made to aircraft. Report of committee, which included representatives from NASA, FAA, DOD, and Dept. of Interior, would be submitted to Congress in several weeks. ‘‘(Av. Wk., 9/12/66, 38; Tech. Wk., 9/19/66, 3)’’
Employment in the aerospace industry would reach 1,349,000 in December 1966-an increase of 11 per cent over December 1965-Aerospace Industries Assn. estimated in a semiannual survey. Estimate was based on reports from 267 plants and facilities of 59 companies which represented nearly 80 per cent of entire industry. ‘‘(AIA Release 66-55)’’
Gen. Bernard A. Schriever (USAF, Ret.), former AFSC commander, became chairman of Aerojet-General Corp.’s newly established advanced planning advisory board. He would serve as senior consultant. ‘‘(Wash. Eve. Star, 9/20/66, A16)’’
The general aviation (nonairline) fleet would “be 80 per cent larger and 90 per cent busier” in 1975 than in 1964, FAA estimated in a staff study and forecast. Study, which would be used to plan aviation facilities and services during next decade, predicted that 160,000 general-aviation aircraft would fly 30 million hrs. in 1975, compared to 88,742 aircraft and 15.7 million hrs. in 1964. ‘‘(FAA Release 66-87)’’
In telegram to companies which had submitted SST airframe and engine designs Sept. 6-Boeing Co., Lockheed Aircraft Corp., General Electric Go., and Pratt & Whitney Div., United Aircraft Corp.-FAA said it would no longer approve “the public release of any information on the supersonic transport program which could be construed as being intended to influence anyone’s judgment,” relative to evaluation of SST designs, until “conditions permit.” Selection of contractors was expected in late 1966. ‘‘(Clark, NYT, 9/24/66, 50)’’
FAA Administrator William F. McKee told the Economic Club of Detroit that by bringing closer together the industrialized and developing nations, supersonic aircraft would make possible “a better way of life for all. . . . The social meaning of this greater ability to communicate is difficult to imagine.” Calling air travel one of the Nation’s fastest growing businesses, General McKee said that rate of increase had averaged 14 per cent over recent years and had jumped to 25 per cent for the first half of 1966. ‘‘(NYT, 9/20/66, 76)’’
Dr. W. C. J. Garrard, George K. Williams, and William W. Williams, Lockheed-Georgia Co. engineers, had been named recipients of Wright Brothers Medal by Society of Automotive Engineers for group report on development of soft-field and rough-field landing gear. ‘‘(Av. Wk., 9/19/66, 25)’’
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