Sep 3 1974
From The Space Library
First wind-tunnel tests of a third-generation X-24 lifting body had been completed by Arnold Engineering Development Center, the Air Force Systems Command announced. A model of the proposed X-24C equipped with phase-change paint was exposed to a mach 6 airflow in a wind tunnel. By photographing the progression of the melt line formed by the paint, engineers determined where heat built up and how quickly, around a new canopy designed for flights up to six times the speed of sound.
The X-24A lifting body had flown test flights from 1969 to 1971 and the X-24B was continuing flights from Edwards Air Force Base in a NASA-USAF research program into concepts for future hypersonic aircraft and returning spacecraft. The X-24C was similar to the B model with the exception of the new canopy and omission of one vertical stabilizer. (AFSC Release OIP 158.74)
President Ford signed H.R. 11864, the Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Act of 1974, into P.L. 93-409 and signed H.R. 14920, the Geo-thermal Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1974, into P.L. 93-410. P.L. 93-409 provided for demonstration within three years of the practical uses of solar heating technology and for development and demonstration within five years of the practical use of combined heating and cooling technology. It amended the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 to direct NASA to carry out solar heating and cooling research but provided that, within 60 days of a law creating the Energy Research and Development Administration or other energy R&D agency, functions given to NASA and the National Science Foundation could be transferred to the new agency.
P.L. 93-410 authorized guaranteed loans to finance commercial ventures in geothermal energy and provided for coordination of Federal activities in the development of geothermal energy. (PD, 9 Sept 74, 1099; texts)
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