May 1976

From The Space Library

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Current revision

Rockwell International Corp. awarded contracts for the Air Force B-1 strategic bomber program. On 18 May, Rockwell awarded a $2.4-million contract to Hamilton-Standard Division, United Technologies Corp., for air conditioning and pressurization equipment and air-recirculation loops for the fourth B-1 in the 4-plane prototype program. The firm had supplied similar equipment for 3 earlier B-1 s. On 24 May, Rockwell awarded a $1.8-million subcontract to Martin Marietta Aerospace for tail assemblies, consisting of 2 horizontal stabilizers and a single vertical stabilizer, for the fourth B-1 prototype aircraft. Martin Marietta had supplied stabilizers for the other 3 B- Is. Rockwell, system contractor on the B-1 program, had developed the B-1 to modernize the strategic bomber force; its advantage over previous heavy bombers was the design ability to avoid enemy defense by flying at nearly sonic speed at treetop height to avoid radar detection. The first 2 prototypes were in flight test, and the third was scheduled to fly later in 1976. (Rockwell Releases LA-3, LA-4)

Spaceflight, publication of the British Interplanetary Society, announced that Soviet authorities after a 2-yr delay had released a photograph of Capella-the brightest star in the constellation Auriga-obtained by the "Orion 2" observatory aboard Soyuz 13. Capella is a yellow giant star 150 times as `luminous as the sun and 47 light-years away. Soviet scientists believed they had found a "new association of stars" in the several dozen hot stars of extremely low radiation discovered around Capella; they claimed this was the first time in the history of astronomy that a telescope had obtained a spectrogram of a planetary nebula-a huge gaseous formation with a high-temperature star at the center-and had obtained pictures of a known star with a gaseous envelope rich in silicon. The Orion 2 equipment could make precision study of stellar objects in the ultraviolet spectrum and provide spectrograms of stars of 13th magnitude "to extend the limits set by the American Skylab, whose crews took pictures of stars down to 7.5th magnitude," the Russians said. (Spaceflight, May 1976, 177)

The National Aeronautic Association reported that Karl Striedieck and L. Roy McMaster were jointly claiming a world soaring record for out-and-return distance of 1299 km, for flights they each made on 17 March along the Allegheny Mountains. Striedieck, an Air National Guard pilot from Port Matilda, Pa., flew in a Schleicher AS-W 17 sailplane from Lock Haven, Pa., to Mendota, Va., and back, on course for 11 hr averaging more than 117 kph, claiming by this flight the world out-and-return record for the fifth time. McMaster, an accountant from Elmira Heights, N.Y., flew the same course in a Schempp-Hirth Standard Cirrus sailplane, landing about an hour later than Striedieck. If approved by NAA and the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the world-record claims would give McMaster a U.S. National Standard Class record for out-and-return distance; Striedieck's AS-W 17 would not qualify under standard class rules. (NAA Newsletter, May 1976, 3)

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