February 21, 1966

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THE WAR IN VIETNAM

North Viet Sortie Rate Pressed as Political Purpose Fails

Saigon—White House-directed air strikes against North Vietnam are “87% political and 13% military,” a high-ranking USAF official said here. Fie adds that “our effort up there is peanuts compared with what we should be doing. All we’ve done so far is force them to tighten their belts a little and work a little harder to move the supplies, but we haven’t really hurt them.”

By C. M. Plattner15 min

AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

Safety Car Supporters Press for Federal, State Funds

Federal backing for a safety car development program appears likely, according to Sen. Abraham A. Ribicoff (D.-Conn.), chairman of a Senate subcommittee investigating federal highway safety activities. Ribicoff spoke after hearings in Washington where three New York state legislators, State Sen. Edward J. Speno and Simon J. Liebowitz and Assemblyman Alexander Chananau asked for $3.6 million in federal funds to build 6-12 prototype safety cars.

By Roderick D. Hibben8 min

SPACE TECHNOLOGY

New Study of Lifting Body Potential Set

Los Angeles—Continuing interest of National Aeronautics and Space Administration in manned lifting body-type entry vehicles is being advanced with a new industry competition for a study to determine the influence of the size of such a vehicle on research potential and project costs.

By Irving Stone8 min

AVIONICS

Large-scale Microcircuit Gains Reported

Philadelphia—Encouraging progress in developing large-scale microcircuit arrays, which contain more than a hundred interconnected bi-polar transistor circuits on a single silicon wafer, was reported here at the International SolidState Circuits Conference (AW&ST June 7, 1965, p. 53; Sept. 13, 1965, p. 85).

By Philip J. Klass8 min

AIR TRANSPORT

Boeing Shifts to Low-wing 747 Design

Los Angeles—Firm position on development of Boeing Co.’s Model 747, a large passenger/cargo transport based on technology of the company’s entry in the recent Air Force C-5A competition, may emerge from a meeting of the board of directors Feb. 28.

By Irving Stone7 min

EDITORIAL:

Vietnam Bombing Debate

(Current congressional debate on the Vietnam war has raised the question of whether Administration strategy in its North Vietnam bombing campaign has been effective. One of the most experienced critics on this point is Sen. Stuart Symington (D.-Mo.), a former Secretary of the Air Force who has just returned from a tour of the combat areas.

SPACE TECHNOLOGY

Improved Crawler Undergoes First Trial

Merritt Island, Fla.—National Aeronautics and Space Administration believes it has remedied problems encountered last year with the Saturn 5/Apollo crawler. The space agency feels that the crawler, and other facilities at Kennedy Space Center, will be ready to support the first launch of a Saturn 5 as early as this December.

By George Alexander5 min

February 141966

February 281966

February 21, 1966

February 21, 1966