Dec 23 1976
From The Space Library
Aircraft over flights by Wallops Flight Center, coordinated by La RC at the request of NOAA, were helping the U.S. Coast Guard track an oil slick from a tanker grounded off Nantucket Island, NASA announced. Flights on 19 and 22 Dec. had obtained data from the ocean around the tanker to use in calculating the slick's trajectory; another flight had been scheduled for 24 Dec. Imagery from Landsat-2 was providing synoptic views of the spill area. NOAA would use the information to set up analytical models for determining potential environmental damage associated with offshore oil and gas production on the continental shelf. Brookhaven Natl. Laboratory, ERDA, had also requested the data for use in environmental studies. (WFC Release 76-17)
The U.S. Army awarded a contract to Sikorsky Aircraft, Stratford, Conn., for a new generation of combat assault helicopters-single-rotor craft driven by jet turbine engines, capable of carrying a three-man crew plus 11 heavily armed soldiers-in a decision that would bring a total of $3.4 billion including development and other costs to the depressed area economy over the next 10 yr, the New York Times reported. State officials said the contract could produce up to 17 000 new jobs and called it "the perfect Christmas present." Sikorsky officials said the contract would bring it $2 billion directly and $1.4 billion more to subcontractors in 35 states. Also competing for the contract was the Vertol division of Boeing Corp., in Morton, Pa. (NYT, 24 Dec 76, A-1)
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