Jul 3 1973
From The Space Library
NASA announced it had negotiated cost-sharing, no-fee contracts for the ground-and-flight-test phase of its program to reduce jet engine noise of DC-9 and Boeing 727 aircraft in U.S. commercial service. United Aircraft Corp. Pratt & Whitney Div., McDonnell Douglas Corp. Douglas Aircraft Co., and Boeing Co. had completed design studies showing the engines could be quieted using existing technology without degrading engine or aircraft performance. In Phase 2 of the program, they would develop and test a modified JT8D engine with a larger single-stage fan to reduce exhaust velocity, incorporating acoustic treatment to muffle fan noise in new nacelles for the refan engines, and adding two booster stages to the low-pressure compressor to maintain proper airflow to the engine core. Pratt & Whitney would receive $14.6 million to modify six engines, make analyses and design studies of the JT8D engine and components, fabricate engine-modification hardware, and support tests by the air-frame manufacturers. Boeing Co., under a contract to be signed later, would study design of the sound-absorbing nacelle, identify modifications to the 727 aircraft to accommodate the nacelle, ground-test refanned 727 aircraft, and evaluate nacelle configurations with varying acoustic treatments. Douglas Aircraft would receive $6.9 million to develop experimental installation of the refanned JT8D engine on DC-9 aircraft and to flight-test the refanned DC-9. The contracts were for two years. First flight tests of refanned engines on DC-9s were scheduled for early 1975. (NASA Release 73-126)
President Nixon submitted to the Senate the nomination of Under Secretary and Acting Secretary of the Air Force John L. McLucas to be Secretary of the Air Force succeeding Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., who had resigned in May to become President of the National Academy of Engineering. McLucas had been Deputy Director of Defense Research and Engineering 1962-1964 and Executive Secretary General for Scientific Affairs of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Paris 1964-1966. The President also submitted to the Senate the nomination of Gen. George S. Brown to be Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force, for four years beginning Aug. 1. Gen. Brown-to succeed Gen. John D. Ryan, who would retire July 31-had been Commander of the Air Force Systems Command since September 1970. Both nominations were confirmed July 14. (PD, 7/9/73, 884; 7/16/73, 903; CR, 7/14/73, D831)
Dr. Philip Handler, President of the National Academy of Sciences, told newsmen in Moscow that he had informed President Mstislav V. Keldysh of the Soviet Academy of Sciences that there would be a time when the U.S. would need "more definitive information" about the Soviet space program. Dr. Handler had referred to the 1975 joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo Soyuz Test Project. Concluding a two-week tour of Soviet scientific establishments as head of an NAS delegation, Dr. Handler said U.S. science was "a cut ahead" of Soviet science but the distance between the countries was "not very great." (Reuters, W Post, 7/4/73, A24)
Twelve sensors mounted on an Air Force NC-135 aircraft flying 11 km (7 mi) above the Sahara desert had found no evidence of the shadow bands which had swept over the landscape just before the June 30 total solar eclipse, the New York Times reported. A Canadian aircraft flying in the troposphere, the lowest region of the atmosphere, had seen the bands-one of the most unusual manifestations of the eclipse-clearly and had photographed them on the aircraft's wing. Astronomers had theorized that- the bands resulted from refraction of the narrow slit of sunlight that shone through atmospheric layers when the sun was al-most totally eclipsed. Another theory was that the sunlight had been defracted by the edge of the moon. (Sullivan, NYT, 7/3/73, 7)
July 3-6: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the French government sponsored a conference, "The Sun in the Service of Mankind," in Paris. More than 600 inter-national scientists discussed solar power as an answer to man's energy needs. A working group of 13 scientists from developed and developing countries suggested that "a massive internationally funded and directed research and development programme for the attainment of specific objectives, should receive wide discussion among scientists in [UNESCO] member states." The group asked whether the development and exploitation of satellites to collect solar energy above the atmosphere should be left to one country "or should there be a cooperative worldwide attack on the problem with a provision for beaming the collected energy to receiving stations in many places in the world?" U.S. energy experts reiterated recommendations made by NASA and the National Science Foundation in their December 1972 report Solar Energy Research: A Multidisciplinary Approach. NASA had recommended that the U.S. undertake a 10- to 15-yr program to develop the use of solar energy to generate electricity. NASA and the NSF had called for Federal investment of $3 billion in solar energy research. NSF scientist William H. Wetmore told the conference that the U.S. estimated its deficit in oil supplies alone would reach from 10 to 16 million barrels a day by 1990 and would cause a trade imbalance of $15 billion annually. U.S. industry representatives reported their progress with solar climate control research to use solar energy for heating houses and factories. Washington Post columnist Claire Sterling commented later on the impact of the industry reports: "Perhaps more than any single factor at this conference, the willingness of these big American companies to actually put money into solar research and development has brought about a stunning change in thinking. From an essentially `do-good movement of scientists hoping to help the poor countries . . . with cheap solar cookers there has suddenly emerged a rich-state research and development movement on a supremely sophisticated technological level." (Lewis, NYT, 7/2/73, 12; New Scientist, 7/12/73, 71-2; W Post, 7/16/73, A22; A&A 1972)
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
