Feb 4 1975
From The Space Library
Air Force Systems Command's Aeronautical Systems Div. announced plans to begin flight evaluation of fan blades constructed of advanced composite materials. The new blades, made of an aluminum alloy matrix enforced by silicon carbide-coated boron filaments, would be flown on an F-111 aircraft over a 2- to 3-yr period at the Air Force Flight Test Center in California. The composite blades, 40% lighter than conventional titanium blades, were expected to increase operating efficiency by reducing rotating mass, increasing tip speeds, and eliminating part-span shrouds. (AFSC Release OIP 301.74)
Edward N. Cole, retired president of General Motors Corp., was designing a freight carrier, called the Huskie, twice the size of the Boeing 747, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Cole, whose plan was still an the drawing board, envisioned a fleet of 300 Huskies carrying freight around the world, each aircraft flying 15 hr a day. Because fast loading and unloading was critical to the plane's economic success, an automated modular loading and unloading system was also being designed to permit the craft to take off again within 30 min of landing. With the price tag for the fleet estimated at $13 billion, Cole was counting on, government interest to bolster his plans. CSM reported that Dept. of Defense officials were interested in a fleet of privately built cargo planes-with government-insured mortgages--that could be commandeered by the military in an emergency. (AP, CSM, 4 Feb 75, 5B)
NASA announced that General Counsel R. Tenney Johnson would leave NASA to become general counsel of the Energy Research and Development Administration, effective 16 Feb. Johnson had been with NASA since May 1973. NASA Deputy General Counsel S. Neil Hosenball had been named acting General Counsel. (NASA Release 75=32)
Academician Anatoly A. Blagonravov, one of the Soviet Union's leading space scientists, died in Moscow at the age of 80. Blagonravov, chairman of the Soviet Academy of Sciences' Commission for Space Research and head of the State Research Institute of Engineering Studies, was one of the key scientists responsible for launching the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1, 4 Oct. 1957. Blagonravov had begun his career in the military and much of his early work was on the development of automatic infantry weapons. He later turned to the development of spacecraft, making major design contributions to the Soviet Union's Lunik I, launched 2 June 1959, as the first man-made object to fly by the moon. Blagonravov also represented the U.S.S.R. in many international organizations: He had been vice-president of the International Space Research Committee, permanent U.S.S.R. representative on the United Nations Scientific and Technical Subcommittee for the Peaceful Use of Space, and permanent deputy Soviet representative on the U.N. Space Committee.
In 1962 Blagonravov held discussions with Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, during which details for exchange of satellite data were worked out. (Moscow Domestic News Service, FBIS-Sov, 7 Feb 75, U1; W Post, 7 Feb 75, C8; McElheny, NYT, 6 Feb 75,34)
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