CLEVELAND, OHIO Engineers at the NASA-Lewis Research Center here are leading National AeroSpace Plane program efforts to develop slush hydrogen fuel technologies for the proposed X-30 hypersonic vehicle. Slush hydrogen—a high-energy hydrogen slurry—is expected to be the primary propellant for the National Aero-Space Plane.

EDWARDS AFB, CALIF. An Air Force/contractor team has completed flight tests of a stability enhancement system that will allow the Rockwell International B-1B to fly low-level missions with full internal fuel and weapons. The new limits add 150,000 lb. to the maximum flight weights Strategic Air Command crews observe today, extend the low-level mission range by 1,108 naut. mi., and allow in-flight refueling to be performed at 25,000 ft. Earlier B-1B configurations could not refuel to the 440,000-lb. full-internal gross weight at this altitude without triggering a stall warning.

LE BOURGET Initial readout of the flight data recorder carried by a Mikoyan MiG-29 that crashed during the Paris air show has been completed as part of the ongoing accident investigation. The recorder readout was performed in Moscow in the presence of a representative from the French CEV flight test center.