Research flights

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 12

Research flights

A fourth series of flights for auroral, air glow, cosmic ray and conjugate point research will be made later this month by a Boeing 707 flying laboratory which visited Christchurch in 1967, 1968, and last October.

The Boeing, a specially equipped military version, from the laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, is due at Christchurch on September 12. It is likely to have more than 20 scientists and technicians aboard.

During its week in Christchurch the Boeing is expected to make flights almost to the rim of the Antarctic continent at altitudes of between 33,000 ft and 37,000 ft. At the same time another Boeing will fly on similar missions north of Anchorage, Alaska, keeping to the same time, speed and altitude.

Information collected from these flights is expected to add to scientific knowledge of the structure of the upper atmosphere, electric field producing magnetisms . and geomagnetic field configurations.