Jan 31 1978

From The Space Library

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Current revision

ESA announced that it had successfully tested the second stage of its Ariane launcher in flight configuration, at the Deutsche Forschungs- and Versuchsanstalt fur Luft- and Raumfahrt e.V. test center in Hardthausen, Germany. The 138sec test had checked compatibility between the structure (fuel tanks) and propulsion system (engines) and that of the pressurization system, propulsion-system performance, and structure resistance. ESA had scheduled two further tests in the next few weeks; all three stages of the launcher had reached complete-stage testing. The Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, France, had developed Ariane for ESA; more than 50 firms in 10 ESA-member countries had participated in the program. (ESA Release Jan 31/78)

Federal Aviation Administrator Langhorne Bond said the British Civil Aviation Authority and the British Plessey Corporation had been "using the press and other news media to deliberately mislead and confuse the world aviation community" about a U.S.-backed all-weather approach and landing system. The FAA administrator said the time reference scanning-beam/microwave landing system (TRSB/MLS) had been developed in a "goldfish bowl" from the outset with wide public participation; he labelled as "simply not true" British allegations that the U.S. had conducted a misleading test program or issued false data, and that the TRSB system was unsafe. Bond said the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), at its worldwide meeting in April, would probably select TRSB as the international system and that the campaign to discredit TRSB had been a last-minute effort by the British and Plessey to influence ICAO's decision. (FAA Release 9-78; W Star, Jan 7/78, A-1)

• 1978
• January

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