Aug 11 1999
From The Space Library
Robert Thomas "R. T." Jones, who had "led the development of the swept-back jet wing design that revolutionized air travel and enabled planes to break the sound barrier," died at the age of 89. Jones had begun designing the swept-back wings in 1944, when airplane wings were perpendicular to the fuselage, while working at NACA (National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics), NASA's predecessor agency. In 1945 Jones had conducted airflow studies, showing that a cone-shaped shock wave cut across the tips of straight wings, causing deterioration at Mach 1, the speed of sound. Jones had concluded that a swept-back design would preserve the wings and reduce drag. Although his idea was initially ignored, "virtually every commercial and military jet uses the design today." Jones's later research had included work on the oblique wing, "mounted on a pivot on top of the fuselage." The oblique wing maintained a right angle to the fuselage for maximum lift during takeoff, but the pilot could manipulate it so that, at cruising altitude, one wing tip pointed forward and one backward, saving fuel, generating less engine noise, and eliminating the sonic boom. Although Jones's oblique wing design had never advanced beyond the testing stage, some aeronautical designers continued to study its possibilities.
NASA's largest balloon-39 million cubic feet (1.1 million cubic meters) in volume and 60 stories high lifted off from Lynn Lake in Manitoba, Canada, to carry out a 38-hour flight more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) above Earth. The balloon carried a Japanese-built instrument, the Superconducting Solenoidal Magnet, to collect particles of antimatter. Shuji Orito of the University of Tokyo led the project, called BESS (Balloon Borne Experiment with a Superconducting Solenoidal Magnet); NASA sponsored the United States' portion of the mission and Monbusho sponsored the Japanese portion.
Kazakhstan's Finance Minister, Uraz Dzhandosov, announced that Russia had paid US$12.5 million as a first installment of its debt to Kazakhstan, fulfilling a condition of the agreement between the two countries. Kazakhstan had demanded the payment as part of the terms of lifting the launch ban it had imposed on Russia when a Russian Proton rocket exploded after liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
China confirmed that it had fired its new Dong Feng-31 (DF-31) missile during a test launch on 2 August, publicizing details of the successful launch of the long-range, ground-to-ground, intercontinental, strategic ballistic missile. The Chinese Guangzhou Daily reported that the "three-stage, solid-fuel rocket was launched from northern Shanxi province and crashed down in the western territory of Xinjiang." Jane's Defence Weekly estimated that the DF-31 had an 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) range and was capable of carrying a 700-kilogram (1,500-pound) nuclear warhead. Robert Karniol, a foreign correspondent covering Asia for the defense industry publication Jane's, remarked that "the DF-31 should be operationally deployed by China in 2000," and that the country expected to build 10 to 20 of the missiles, some replacing 1960s-era missiles with half the range of the DF-31. The Guangzhou Daily also reported that China had developed the technology for piloted spaceflight. Wang Xinqing, head of the China Carrier-Rocket Research Institute, which designs military- and civilian-use rockets, stated that the core of the program was the development of a new series of carrier rockets, Long March 5. Wang Xinqing also refuted a report by the U.S. Congress alleging that China had stolen the United States' missile and nuclear warhead technology, insisting that China had perfected the rocketry before the United States had achieved it.
The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) published a report critical of the X-33 program jointly sponsored by NASA and Lockheed Martin, concluding that the program was unlikely to meet its original cost, schedule, and performance goals because of increased costs, delayed testing, and revised objectives. However, NASA and Lockheed Martin responded that they expected the program to "achieve technical requirements, such as demonstrating the feasibility of building large liquid hydrogen fuel tanks made of graphite composite material." The purpose of the X-33 Program was to develop and demonstrate advanced technologies for use on future reusable launch vehicles, such as the company's VentureStar TM.
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