Convairiety, Volume 13, Number 10, May 11, 1960 Page: 2 of 8
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Page 2
CONVAIRIETY
Wednesday, May 1 1, 1960
Project Mercury Atlas
Readied For Shipment
To Cape Canaveral Soon
FIRST PHOTO — Project Mer-
cury space capsule photo was
released for first time. McDon-
nell Aircraft delivered it to
NASA. Pylon atop capsule is
escape system. Atlas missile will
send such a capsule into space.
A continent apart, important
steps are being taken in Project
Mercury, the effort to boost a
manned capsule into space.
At San Diego this week Astro-
nautics was readying an Atlas
missile for shipment to Cape
Canaveral, assigned to the
project.
At Wallops Island, Va., Mc-
Donnell Aircraft, builder of the
space capsule, delivered the first
capsule instrumented for escape
system tests.
Accepting the latter was the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Project Mercury
sponsor. This government agen-
cy’s Space Task Group will assist
McDonnell in exhaustive tests of
the system.
The capsule delivered is cone-
shaped with a base diameter of
about six feet. It is nine feet
high. Atop the capsule is a
tower arrangement with a high
impulse rocket as its peak. The
rocket could carry the capsule
away from the Atlas should mal-
function occur. It is a safety de-
vice which would be jettisoned if
not needed.
Astronautics is modifying Ser-
ies D Atlas missiles for Project
Mercury. Modifications consist of
alterations in guidance and auto-
pilot telemetry and electrical
systems. Astro has also designed
an abort sensing system, which
would detect malfunctions during
booster flight and trigger the
automatic escape mechanism.
This mechanism could also be
triggered by ground control sta-
tions, including the test conduct-
or, or by the pilot within the
.
i'*w*s***.
TAXI—First full photo of multi-windowed TB-58 was taken May
6 during rollout for first taxi run—with Val Prahl, Earl Guthrie, and
Grover Tate aboard. Trainer was to taxi again before first flight.
Hustler Makes High and Low
Flybys For Aviation Writers
A B-58 made low and high-level
dashes over Edwards AFB May
6, as some 150 aviation writers
on the ground received a running
radio account of the action.
The demonstrations at Edwards
climaxed a week-long conference
of the Aviation Writers Associa-
tion held in Los Angeles.
Flying supersonic, the B-58
first made a high-altitude pass,
demonstrating operational bom-
bardier-navigation techniques
used on the Hustler. During the
flybys, a running commentary of
the action was radioed from the
Hustler to a ground station, then
aired over a loudspeaker to the
writers.
After the high-altitude pass,
the Hustler made one of its
famed on-the-deck operations at
low altitude.
A three-man crew from Cars-
well AFB put the Hustler through
its paces.
Following the demonstrations,
the B-58 was put on static display
for writers and photographers.
capsule. The pilot would throw a
special switch.
(Astronauts, one of whom
will make the first manned
space flight, call this the
“chicken switch.”)
Early this year capsule tests
at the Virginia site were made
with a small (six-pound) monkey
aboard. “Miss SAM” (for School
of Aviation Medicine, her “home”)
rode the capsule atop a “Little
Joe” rocket to an altitude of
36,000 feet where the escape sys-
tem was activated to bring her
safely to earth.
She was examined and pro-
claimed “in good condition.”
Complex 14, the “oldest” of the
Atlas launch sites at the Atlantic
Missile Range, will be the launch
site for Project Mercury. Curt
Johnston, Astronautics test con-
ductor, will be in charge. Assist-
ing will be representatives of
NASA, McDonnell and the Air
Force.
Normal Atlas countdown pro-
cedures will be used, although the
count will be lengthened 30 min-
utes to allow for checkout of cap-
sule systems and instrumentation.
The first ballistic missile test
shot involving Atlas and the Mer-
cury capsule took place in Sep-
tember of 1959. It was designated
“Big Joe.” The capsule was re-
covered and NASA reported the
test yielded a wealth of re-entry
and recovery data.
In the next series of tests
Atlas will lift the capsule above
the atmosphere and accelerate it
to about 17,000 miles an hour on
a downward slanting trajectory
that duplicates re-entry condi-
tions. The capsule model sepa-
rates, orients itself, and para-
chutes into the recovery area.
Next come ballistic shots in
which unmanned capsules will be
placed in orbit by Atlas to evalu-
ate the capsule system and the
world-wide tracking and com-
munication network now being
installed by NASA as well as
the total recovery system.
However, before the first
manned space flights, the seven
astronauts will send one or more
of their number on shorter flights
involving the capsule and a Red-
stone missile booster. These will
be sub-orbit flights.
The first Atlas-boosted
manned Mercury shoot, now
scheduled by NASA for the
“calendar year 1961,” will send
the capsule and its occupant
more than 100 miles above the
earth where it will make three
90-minute orbits before recov-
ery operations are started.
All participants in the Mercury
program, Convair Astronautics
and its thousands of suppliers,
McDonnell Aircraft and its vend-
ors, plus many others, have all
joined in a Project Mercury Pilot
Safety Program.
At Astronautics and its sup-
pliers this means normally rigid
Atlas quality control measures
are being tightened even more.
FOR MERCURY—This Atlas missile is being readied for shipment
to Cape Canaveral where it will be assigned to Project Mercury.
Special space capsule will be affixed to nose.
Models Help Determine
Best Spot For Antenna
Test engineers at Convair Fort
Worth are using scale model cop-
per B-58s, rolling along “railroad
tracks,” to figure positions for
the Hustler’s many antennas,
ranging from low frequency com-
munications and navigational aids
to high frequency radar anten-
Hanging from the ceiling of
the antenna range shelter atop
the test lab are the not-in-use
models, resembling contemporary
mobiles. But when the lab re-
ceives a test request—for in-
First 600 Engine
Arrives at SD
First engine for the Convair
600 jet transport arrived at the
San Diego plant early last week.
Flown in from the General
Electric Co. plant at Cincinnati,
Ohio, the CJ-805-21 aft-fan jet
engine, slated to power Convair’s
newest jet airliner, is now in the
engine buildup area in Bldg. 4,
Plant 1. It will be used in a
mockup for the tubing and elec-
trical wiring to be installed at
the SD plant, said F. E. Gros-
sher, superintendent of 600 pod
and pylon assembly.
From the mockup, production
parts for the engine pod will be
made and assembled under direc-
tion of C. W. Clark, foreman of
pod and pylon major buildup.
Second engine, due here late
this week, is slated to go to the
engine test stand at the SD sea-
plane ramp for checkout.
The other two engines, com-
pleting the ship set for plane No.
1, are scheduled for delivery by
June 1, said Grossher. The pod
and pylon units, complete with
GE engines, will be installed on
the aircraft in final assembly.
stance, “Tell us where’s the best
place to locate the glide slope
antenna?”—the models swing in-
to action.
First an antenna is mounted on
the model in what engineers con-
sider the most logical place. Then
the entire model is put atop a
motor-driven pole and begins its
trip out the tracks to the roof,
away from the shelter.
With a given antenna and a
given frequency to be used, the
distance of the model from the
shelter—where the power source
is located—-must be exact. Engi-
neers have about 100 feet of track
to work with.
The power source transmits
signals which are relayed to a
console inside the shelter by a
detector, attached to the antenna
and connected to the plotting sys-
tem by cable.
Then the search begins, and the
engineers begin plotting full scale
antenna radiation patterns.
If plotting shows the first po-
sition selected for the antenna
produces the desired results,
that’s where the antenna will go
on the airplane. If not, engineers
will remove the antenna, quick-
patch the hole, and try it some-
where else.
Incidentally, the easy soldering-
characteristics of copper is one
reason the models are made of
that material. In addition, it’s
relatively inexpensive.
Bill Raymond, Dept. 6-7, says
the most frequently used copper
model is the one-tenth scale size,
although the lab has several
smaller ones. They’re less desir-
able in most cases, however, be-
cause, as the model size is scaled
down, frequency of signals must
be scaled up accordingly. Too
small a model would require an
impossible-to-produce frequency.
NMA Conference Set
For Campus of SDU
Annual conference of the San
Diego Area Council of the Na-
tional Management Association
will be held at the University of
San Diego May 7 from 9:30 a.m.
to 4 p.m.
Featured speaker, both Satur-
day morning and afternoon, will
be Max B. Skousen, president of
Skousen Financial Management
Service, Inc.
Tickets are priced at $4 for
Management Club members and
$2 for members’ wives. Reserva-
tion chairman is Virgil Jaenicki,
Narmco, San Diego.
ANTENNA CHECK—Best spots on B-58 for antenna locations
are determined with copper models at Fort Worth. Center, L. B.
Herring, Dept. 36, tightens antenna before it’s rolled outside. At
left, B. F. Pinksa, Dept. 6-7, adjusts power source and
signals. At right, Bill Raymond, also Dept. 6-7, okays positior
on tracks.
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Convairiety, Volume 13, Number 10, May 11, 1960, periodical, May 11, 1960; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1118010/m1/2/?q=%22~1~1%22~1&rotate=180: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.