М.А. Занина, А.С. Скоробогатова

М.А. Занина, А.С. Скоробогатова

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК

Учебное пособие по иностранному языку для студентов АК факультета

Челябинск

Unit I. Development of flying vehicles

Text 1. Development of rockets

Part I

The technology of rocket propulsion appears to have its origins in the period AD 1200–1300 in Asia, where the first “propellant” (a mixture of saltpetre, sulfur, and charcoal called black powder) had been in use for about 1, 000 years for other purposes. As is so often the case with the development of technology, the early uses were primarily military. Powered by black powder charges, rockets served as bombardment weapons, culminating in effectiveness with the Congreve rockets (named for William Congreve, a British officer who was instrumental in their development) of the early 1800s. Performance of these early rockets was poor by modern standards because the only available propellant was black powder, which is not ideal for propulsion. Military use of rockets declined from 1815 to 1936 because of the superior performance of guns.

During the period 1880–1930 the idea of using rockets for space travel grew in public interest. Stimulated by the conceptions of such fiction writers as Jules Verne, the Russian scientist Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky worked on theoretical problems of propulsion-system design and rocket motion and on the concept of multistage rockets. Perhaps more widely recognized are the contributions of Robert H. Goddard, an American scientist and inventor who from 1908 to 1945 conducted a wide array of rocket experiments. He independently developed ideas similar to those of Tsiolkovsky about spaceflight and propulsion and implemented them, building liquid- and solid-propellant rockets. His developmental work included tests of the world's first liquid-propellant rocket in 1926. Goddard's many contributions to the theory and design of rockets earned him the title of father of modern rocketry. A third pioneer, Hermann Oberth of Germany, developed much of the modern theory for rocket and spaceflight independent of Tsiolkovsky and Goddard. He not only provided inspiration for visionaries of spaceflight but played a pivotal role in advancing the practical application of rocket propulsion that led to the development of rockets in Germany during the 1930s.

Due to the work of these early pioneers and a host of rocket experimenters, the potential of rocket propulsion was at least vaguely perceived prior to World War II, but there were many technical barriers to overcome. Development was accelerated during the late 1930s and particularly during the war years. The most notable achievements in rocket propulsion of this era were the German liquid-propellant V-2 rocket and the Me-163 rocket-powered airplane. (Similar developments were under way in other countries but did not see service during the war.) A myriad of solid-propellant rocket weapons also were produced, and tens of millions were fired during combat operations by German, British, and U.S. forces. The main advances in propulsion that were involved in the wartime technology were the development of pumps, injectors, and cooling systems for liquid-propellant engines and high-energy solid propellants that could be formed into large pieces with reliable burning characteristics.

Essential vocabulary:

1. propulsion – движение, толчок;

2. propellant – топливо;

3. saltpeter – селитра;

4. sulfur – сера;

5. charcoal – древесный уголь;

6. weapon – оружие;

7. available – доступный;

8. multistage – многоступенчатый;

9. to implement – выполнять, осуществлять;

10. to provide – снабжать, обеспечивать;

11. inspiration – вдохновение;

12. visionary – мечтатель, провидец;

13. pivotal – центральный, основной;

14. to perceive – воспринимать;

15. achievement – достижение;

16. to accelerate – ускорять;

17. missile – реактивный снаряд, ракета;

18. pump – помпа, нагнетатель воздуха;

I. Give the English equivalents of the following phrases:

- ракетное топливо;

- ракеты служили в качестве бомбардировщиков;

- практическое применение ракет;

- ракета с жидким топливом;

- технология развития нагнетателя воздуха, инжектора и охладительной системы;

- самые знаменитые достижения в ракетостроении;

II. Give definitions to the following words:

rocket, weapon, flight, achievement, propulsion

III. Answer the following questions:

1). When did the technology of rocket propulsion appear for the first time?

2). Who worked on theoretical problems of propulsion-system design in our country?

3). Why was the development of rockets accelerated during the war years?

4). Who conducted a wide array of rocket experiments from 1908 to 1945?

5). What other outstanding rocket developers do you know? What are their achievements in rocketry? Make a short presentation in your group.

Text 2. Development of rockets

Part II

From 1945 to 1955 propulsion development was still largely determined by military applications. Liquid-propellant engines were refined for use in supersonic research aircraft, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and high-altitude research rockets. Similarly, developments in solid-propellant motors were in the areas of military tactical rocket applications and high-altitude research. Bombardment rockets, aircraft interceptors, antitank weapons, and air-launched rockets for air and surface targets were among the primary tactical applications. Technological advances in propulsion included the perfection of methods for casting solid-propellant charges, development of more energetic solid propellants, introduction of new structural and insulation materials in both liquid and solid systems, manufacturing methods for larger motors and engines, and improvements in peripheral hardware (e.g., pumps, valves, engine-cooling systems, and direction controls). By 1955 most missions called for some form of guidance, and larger rockets generally employed two stages. While the potential for spaceflight was present and contemplated at the time, financial resources were directed primarily toward military applications.

The next decade witnessed the development of large solid-propellant rocket motors for use in ICBMs, a choice motivated by the perceived need to have such systems in ready-to-launch condition for long periods of time. This resulted in a major effort to improve manufacturing capabilities for large motors, lightweight cases, energetic propellants, insulation materials that could survive long operational times, and thrust-direction control. Enhancement of these capabilities led to a growing role for solid-rocket motors in spaceflight. Between 1955 and 1965 the vision of the early pioneers began to be realized with the achievement of Earth-orbiting satellites and manned spaceflight. The early missions were accomplished with liquid-propulsion systems adapted from military rockets. The first successful “all-civilian” system was the Saturn launch vehicle for the Apollo Moon-landing program, which used five 680, 000-kilogram-thrust liquid-propellant engines in the first stage. Since then, liquid systems have been employed by most countries for spaceflight applications, though solid boosters have been combined with liquid engines in various first stages of U.S. launch vehicles (those of the Titan 34D, Delta, and Space Shuttle) and solid-rocket motors have been used for several systems for transfer from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit. In such systems, the lower performance of solid-propellant motors is accepted in exchange for the operational simplicity that it provides.

Since 1965, missions have drawn on an ever-expanding technology base, using improved propellants, structural materials, and designs. Present-day missions may involve a combination of several kinds of engines and motors, each chosen according to its function. Because of the performance advantages of energetic propellants and low structural mass, propulsion systems are operated near their safe limits, and one major challenge is to achieve reliability commensurate with the value of the (sometimes human) payload.

Edward W. Price

Essential vocabulary:

1. application – применение;

2. engine – двигатель;

3. high-altitude – высотный;

4. interceptor – истребитель-перехватчик;

5. to cast – бросать;

6. charge – заряд;

7. target – цель, мишень;

8. insulation – изоляция, изоляционный материал;

9. manufacturing – производство, изготовление;

10. improvement – улучшение;

11. valve – клапан;

12. to contemplate – созерцать, обдумывать, рассматривать, предполагать;

13. satellite – спутник;

14. to accomplish – совершать, выполнять, достигать;

15. thrust – тяга, толчок;

16. booster – ракета-носитель, стартовый двигатель;

17. to commensurate – соответствовать, соразмерять;

18. payload - полезная нагрузка;

I. Give the English equivalents of the following phrases:

- разработка высотных ракет;

- ракеты для воздушных и наземных целей;

- жидкотопливные двигатели используются в сверхзвуковых самолетах;

- попытка улучшить производственные возможности;

- ракеты, готовые к запуску на длительный период времени;

- выбранный соответственно своей функции;

II. Answer the following questions:

1). What was the main usage of liquid-propellant engines?

2). What rockets were among the primary tactical application

3). What was the first successful ” all-civilian” program?

4). What did the technological advances in propulsion include in the beginning of the 50’s?

5). What were the first improvements in peripheral hardware?

6). What other information about rocketry and its development do you know?

Find some extra information and make a short presentation in your group.

Text 3. The Wright brothers

Wilbur and Orville Wright in the course of their experiments came increasingly to consider Cayley's diagram of how a wing works, particularly the role played the speed of the wind passing over the wing. This led them to seek a site with a strong and persistent wind (the Vogels Mountain where the has just such a high ambient wind, as do the hills near Elmira, N.Y., and Fremont, Calif., classic gliding courses). From the U.S. Weather Bureau the Wrights secured a list of windy sites in the United States, from which they chose the Outer Banks of North Carolina, specifically Kitty Hawk. On Kill Devil Hill there on Dec. 17, 1903, Orville Wright became the first man ever to fly in an aeroplane (as they were at first known), initially using as a frame a biplane of 40-foot 4-inch wingspan and equipped with the 12-horsepower engine. He lifted off the ground in a 20–27-mile/h wind and flew a distance of 120 feet in 12 seconds. Having a strong wind certainly aided in that accomplishment, but the brothers soon demonstrated that such a wind was not absolutely essential.

After further experiments at Kitty Hawk they returned to Dayton to build a second plane, Flyer No. 2. Neither the balloons and dirigibles nor the earlier ornithopter and glider experiments had produced flight: what they had done was to harness the dynamics of the atmosphere to lift a craft off the ground, using what power (if any) they supplied to steer. The Wrights initially used atmospheric dynamics to help in lifting the plane, but they subsequently demonstrated that they were able to lift a plane off the ground in still air.

In the long run their most significant invention was a way to steer the plane. After carefully watching a great number of birds, they became convinced that birds directed their flight by internally warping their wings, distorting them in one fashion or another. To do this in their plane, the Wrights constructed a ridged but distorted wing that might, through the use of wires fixed to the edge of the wing, be flexed to pass through the air in changing directions. This distortable wing was relatively misunderstood by other early plane experimenters.

During the summer of 1904 the Wrights made 105 takeoffs and managed to fly on a circular course up to 2.75 miles for a sustained flight that lasted 5 minutes 4 seconds. Because they took a proprietary view of their invention, publicity about their work was minimal. After further trials in 1905 they stopped their experiments, using the time to obtain patents on their contribution. Only in 1908 did they break their secrecy when Wilbur Wright went to France to promote their latest plane.

Essential vocabulary:

to consider – рассматривать, считать, решать
to pass over – пропускать, переходить, обновить
to seek - искать
site - место
persistent – устойчивый (постоянный)
hill - холм
to glide – скользить, планировать
to secure – закреплять (обозначать)
frame - рамка
biplane - биплан
wingspan – размах крыльев
to equip – оборудовать, оснащать
engine - двигатель
to aid - помогать
accomplishment – выполнение, осуществление
essential – главный, основной
harness – упряжь (зд. обуздать, поймать)
to supply – поставлять, обеспечивать
steer - управление
subsequently - впоследствии
significant invention – важное открытие
to convince - убеждать
to warp - поворачивать
to distort - искажать
fashion - способ
ridged - гребенчатый
wire – шнур, провод
edge – край, ребро
sustained – поддерживать, выдерживать
proprietary – личный, патентованный
contribution - вклад

I. Answer the following questions:

Why did the Wright brothers seek a site with a strong and persistent wind?
Who was the first man to fly in an aeroplane?
Why did neither balloons and dirigibles nor ornithopter experiments produce flight?
What was the most significant invention of the Wright brothers?
How many flights did the Wrights make during the 1904?
When did the Wrights stop experiments and break their cecrecy?

II. Find the English equivalents of the following phrases in the text:

· сильный постоянный ветер

· вскоре продемонстрировали

· абсолютно не важен (нужен)

· зафиксированный на краю крыла

· изогнутое крыло

· подняться с земли (взлететь)

· движение (динамика) атмосферы

· один способ или другой

· расстояние в 120 футов

· изменяющиеся направления

· произвести полет (полететь)

· получить патент на изобретение

Text 1. Energia

Energia is also called RKK Energia formerly OKB-1 Russian aerospace company that is a major producer of spacecraft, launch vehicles, rocket stages, and missiles. It built the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile and the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and pioneered the development and operation of Soviet space stations including the Salyut series and Mir. Its headquarters are in the Moscow suburb of Korolev (formerly Kaliningrad).

Energia serves as a main contractor for the International Space Station (ISS). It provided the service module Zvezda, the station's control centre and living quarters during the initial stage of human occupancy. Other primary products include the Block DM upper stage and the Yamal communications satellite system. The company, which employs more than 20, 000 people, comprises a main design bureau and subordinate enterprises including an experimental plant in Korolev, the Volga design bureau in Samara, and the Primorsk Scientific-Technological Center. It also maintains a branch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch centre in Kazakhstan.

Energia's history is closely tied to the career of rocket designer Sergey P. Korolyov, widely recognized as the founder of the Soviet space program and its guiding genius until his death in 1966. The company traces its origin to a May 1946 decree that established the Soviet Union's missile and space programs. Under the watchful eye of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the Soviet armaments industry founded NII-88 (Scientific-Research Institute 88) in Kaliningrad to direct all work on long-range missiles. Assigned to lead Department 3, one of several departments within the institute, was Korolyov, who had studied aeronautical engineering under the aircraft designer Andrey N. Tupolev and helped develop the Soviet Union's first liquid-propellant rockets in the early 1930s.

Korolyov's department was initially assigned to build improved versions of the German V-2 missile, but by the early 1950s it began to develop its own ballistic missiles including the R-2 (U.S. Department of Defense code name SS-2) and R-5M (SS-3). In 1950 the department was upgraded to an experimental design bureau (OKB), and in 1956 it formally separated from NII-88 and became the independent OKB-1.

The most important work of the design bureau in the 1950s was the creation of the R-7 (SS-6), the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, which was successfully launched in August 1957. Two months later, on October 4, a modified R-7 placed the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into Earth orbit, inaugurating the space era. Korolyov was the primary force behind the launch, having convinced a reluctant Soviet leadership to fund the effort. Over the next decade his design bureau was responsible for establishing the U.S.S.R.'s commanding early lead in the space race with the United States. Its successes included the launches of the first probes—Luna 2 and 3—to reach the Moon, in 1959; the Vostok spacecraft that carried the first human—Yury A. Gagarin—into space in 1961 and the first woman—Valentina Tereshkova—into space in 1963; the Voskhod spacecraft in which Vladimir M. Komarov, Konstantin P. Feoktistov, and Boris B. Yegorov conducted the first multiperson spaceflight in 1964 and from which Aleksey A. Leonov took the first space walk in 1965; and the first spacecraft—Venera 3—to impact on another planet (Venus), in 1965.

The organization's most expensive space project in the 1960s was the secret N1-L3 program, designed to compete with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Apollo program to land humans on the Moon. The same year, the government created the NPO Energia (Scientific and Production Association Energia) conglomerate, with the former OKB-1 at its centre, to play a leading role in the Soviet piloted space program. In the 1970s and '80s, Energia was the prime contractor for the development of the Energia-Buran reusable space system, a combination of launch vehicle (Energia) and winged orbiter (Buran). Despite two successful launches—one of the launch vehicle in 1987 and another of the entire system, including an unmanned, fully automated orbiting and landing of the Buran orbiter, in 1988—funding for the program was canceled in the early 1990s due to severe financial problems accompanying the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Energia's other main work during the 1970s and early '80s focused on the Soviet Union's early generation of space stations, a series of seven spacecraft called Salyut. In 1971 it built and launched its first Salyut, the world's first space station. After recovering from a spate of failures, Energia mounted an unprecedented run of successful missions to the advanced Salyut 6 and 7 stations beginning in the late 1970s. These stations were supplied by improved versions of Soyuz ferry spacecraft and Progress unmanned cargo tankers. A total of 26 crews, including several international ones, visited the two stations, setting consecutive records for endurance in space.

In 1986 Energia launched the core module for the Mir space station, which it subsequently expanded with a series of science and service modules. For 10 years, from 1989 to 1999, the firm kept the station continuously manned, an unequalled achievement. Building on its experience with Mir, Energia signed on in the early 1990s as the main contractor for the Russian portion of the ISS. Its role, however, was gradually reduced, owing partly to stiff competition from another Russian company, Khrunichev, which assumed responsibility for the design and manufacture of a number of ISS modules. In April 1994 Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed an order renaming the firm RKK Energia (Rocket-Space Corporation Energia) and partially privatizing the company.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Energia vigorously pursued international cooperative efforts. Successful ventures included partnerships with Sea Launch and International Launch Services, two multinational satellite launching services to which Energia provided its Block DM upper stage for boosting payloads to geostationary orbit. The company achieved some notoriety in the late 1990s when it sought commercial customers for Mir in order to keep its single most important asset in operation. Continued financial support did not materialize, however, and Energia disposed of Mir in a guided reentry in 2001.

Vocabulary:

launch vehicle – ракета-носитель;
artificial – искусственный;
contractor – подрядчик, поставщик, снабженец;
living quarters - жилое помещение;
initial stage - начальная стадия;
human occupancy – населённость (временное жильё);
to comprise – включать, заключать в себе, содержать;
to subordinate – подчинять, ставить в зависимость;
to maintain – поддерживать, обслуживать, содержать;
trace - след, отпечаток, признак;
decree - декрет, директива, постановление, решение;
а watchful eye – “недремлющее око”; чуткое руководство
armament – военное оборудование;
to assign - назначать, определять, устанавливать;
aeronautical engineering - авиационное проектирование и строительство; авиационная техника; авиационное машиностроение;
code name - кодовое название, наименование;
to upgrade - улучшать, модернизировать, совершенствовать;
to inaugurate – ознаменовывать, служить символом начала (чего-л.);
to convince – убеждать;
reluctant – неохотный;
to impact - воздействовать, влиять;
to cancel – аннулировать, отменять;
to accompany – сопровождать, следовать;
dissolution – распад;
ferry spacecraft - транспортный КА;
cargo – груз;
consecutive – последовательный, консекутивный, (непрерывно) следующий друг за другом;
endurance – выносливость;
core module - основной модуль;
unequalled – бесподобный, несравненный, непревзойдённый;
subsequently - впоследствии, позднее, позже, после, потом;
to assume - принимать, брать на себя (ответственность, управление);
vigorously - решительно, сильно, энергично;
to pursue - преследовать (цель), следовать намеченному курсу;
venture – предприятие, дело;
notoriety – общеизвестность, слава;
asset - ценное, полезное качество;
to dispose - отдавать, передавать;

I. Answer the following questions:

Why is Energia's history closely tied to the career of Sergey Korolyov?
What was the aim of the most expensive space project in the 1960s? Why do you think it was a secret?
When was the world's first space station built and launched? How was it called?
What is the Khrunichev company responsible for?
Why did Energia vigorously pursue international cooperative efforts after the dissolution of the Soviet Union?

Text 2. MiG

MiG is officially ANPK imeni A.I. Mikoyana also called ANPK MiG formerly OKB-155 Russian aerospace design bureau that is the country's major producer of jet fighter aircraft. It developed the family of technologically advanced MiG aircraft, including the Soviet Union's first jet fighter. The MiG design bureau is part of the state-owned multifirm aerospace complex VPK MAPO (Military-Industrial Complex–Moscow Aircraft Production). Headquarters are in Moscow.

The MiG design bureau is institutionally part of the larger MiG Aircraft Building Corporation. The latter corporation employs 15, 000 people, 2, 500 of whom work for the design bureau. Since its formation at the beginning of World War II, the bureau has been involved in about 250 different aircraft projects, of which 120 reached the construction stage. In that time, its main manufacturing plant in Moscow has built more than 15, 000 aircraft. At the start of the 21st century more MiG-designed fighter aircraft, accounting for roughly 20 percent of the world's fighters, were in service than any other type. The company also has a subsidiary production facility at Lukhovitsy. The MiG and Sukhoy design bureaus evenly share the Russian fighter market, but hard times in the 1990s prompted the former to engage in vigorous marketing abroad to countries in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe and to diversify modestly into the civilian passenger plane market.

The company had its start in 1939, when the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the formation of a department within the Moscow-based design bureau of the prominent aviation designer Nikolay N. Polikarpov to develop a new military fighter. Chosen to lead the project was a promising engineer in the bureau, Artem I. Mikoyan, who in turn requested Mikhail I. Gurevich, a close colleague, as his deputy. The two men, possessed of complementary skills and personalities, would remain associated throughout most of their successful and prolific careers. Their first design was the I-200 single-engine, high-altitude interceptor, which first flew in 1940 and which eventually bore the name MiG-1 (MiG being a formation of the first letters of Mikoyan and Gurevich plus i, the Russian word for “and”). An improved version, the MiG-3, soon followed. In 1942 the MiG department was reorganized as an independent design bureau with an aircraft plant in Moscow and given the designation OKB-155 (Experimental Design Bureau 155).

Because Germany did not mount many strategic bombing raids against the Soviet Union in World War II, few early MiG interceptors saw action in their primary role, and it was only in the postwar era that the design bureau grew rapidly in size and influence. Using technology captured from the Germans after the war, Mikoyan and Gurevich produced the first Soviet jet fighter, the MiG-9, which first flew in 1946. During the Cold War, OKB-155 developed some of the U.S.S.R.'s most notable high-speed jet fighters. Between the mid-1940s and late 1950s it created the MiG-15 (which shocked Western forces in the Korean War with its speed and agility), the MiG-17 (which reached supersonic speeds in tests), the MiG-19 (the first mass-produced Soviet supersonic fighter), and the MiG-21 (capable of about twice the speed of sound). The design bureau produced more than 9, 000 MiG-21s in as many as 32 versions for the air forces of the Soviet Union and more than 40 other countries and licensed a version for production in China. The last major fighters designed under Mikoyan's leadership were created in the 1960s. They included the technologically sophisticated MiG-23 interceptor, the first Soviet operational variable-wing jet fighter, and the MiG-25 interceptor, capable of three times the speed of sound.

The bureau underwent leadership changes in the 1960s and '70s. Gurevich retired in 1964, and Mikoyan died in 1970 and was succeeded by his deputy Rostislav A. Belyakov. With Belyakov at the helm, the organization, which in 1978 was renamed to honour Mikoyan, produced several new fighter aircraft for the Soviet Union. They included the MiG-29 attack light interceptor and the all-weather MiG-31 fighter-interceptor, both of which first flew in the 1970s. In the late 1980s the formal name of the design bureau was changed to ANPK imeni A.I. Mikoyana (Aviation Scientific and Production Complex named after A.I. Mikoyan), although it remained commonly known as MiG.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the company, like many other former Soviet defense enterprises, restructured its operations. In 1995 the Russian government established MAPO-MiG (Moscow Aircraft Production Organization-MiG) by combining aircraft production plants with the design bureau. The following year Russian President Boris Yeltsin established the giant VPK MAPO, which consolidated 12 major aerospace firms including MAPO-MiG, as a single entity that could focus on research and development, manufacturing, and marketing of aircraft, engines, avionics systems, and other aerospace products. In the late 1990s MAPO-MiG was beset by financial embezzlement scandals, fierce competition from Sukhoy, major layoffs, and the resignations of several senior designers. In 1999, as part of a general restructuring, the Russian government renamed MAPO-MiG as the MiG Aircraft Building Corporation.

To survive in an extremely strained post-Communist economy, the company turned mostly to export sales of modernized versions of the MiG-29. Despite the lack of government interest, it continued to develop advanced fighter concepts, including the 1.42 multifunctional fifth-generation fighter. Also known as the 1.44I, the aircraft made its first flight in 2000.

Vocabulary:

fighter – истребитель;
to share evenly – равномерно распределять;
subsidiary facility - дочерняя компания, филиал;
former - создатель, разработчик (чего-л.);
vigorous – сильный, мощный;
to diversify – разнообразить, изменять, модифицировать;
modestly – скромно, умеренно;
prominent - выдающийся, знаменитый, известный;
to request – просить, требовать (ненавязчиво);
deputy - заместитель, помощник, исполняющий обязанности;
complementary - комплементарный, дополняющий;
prolific – плодотворный, продуктивный;
interceptor - истребитель-перехватчик;
designation - знак, обозначение, имя;
to capture – захватить, поглотить;
to retire - уходить в отставку, на пенсию;
dissolution - распад;
to consolidate - сливаться, объединяться (об организациях);
avionics - авиационное электронное оборудование;
embezzlement - растрата, хищение; присвоение (денег, имущества; обманным путём);
resignation - отставка; уход в отставку или на пенсию;
layoff – увольнение из-за отсутствия работы; приостановка/прекращение производства
to beset – осаждать;

I. Answer the following questions:

What was the first design of MiG in 1940?
Why did only few MiG interseptors take part in the World War II?
Why was the Russian former engaged in marketing abroad in the 1990s?
What did happen after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991?
How did the MiG Aircraft Building Corporation survive in an extremely strained post-Communist economy?

II. Find the English equivalents of the following phrases in the text:

– главный завод-производитель;

– технологически сложный;

– насчитывающий приблизительно;

– выдающийся авиаконструктор;

– единое целое;

– ослабленная экономика;

– отсутствие интереса;

– переименовать в честь кого-либо;

– яростная конкуренция;

– оборонные предприятия;

– скорость звука;

– быть задействованным в нескольких проектах;

– слияние компаний;

III. Match the words with their definitions:

1. design a) an armed aircraft designed for destroying other aircraft;

2. leadership b) any machine capable of flying by means of aerodynamic forces;

3. to consolidate c) systematic investigation to collect information on a subject;

4. advanced d) the position or function of a leader;

5. aircraft e) to have as one's property;

6. research f) a project, plan or scheme of smth.;

7. fighter g) being ahead in development, knowledge, progress, etc.;

8. to possess h) to unite or to be united;

IV. Find the odd word:

a) sophisticated b) complex c) simple d) difficult
a) designer b) constructor c) developer d) worker
a) research b) to explore c) to investigate d) to search
a) plane c) touchdown c) helicopter d) balloon
a) take-off c) landing c) to fly d) flight
a) to fly c) to take off c) to land d) touchdown
a) rotor c) blade c) tyre d) chassis
a) to run c) to control c) to drive d) to propel

IV. Retell this story.

Sikorsky, Igor Ivanovich

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky 1889-1972 Today remembered as the father of the helicopter, Igor Sikorsky had three distinct aviation careers. During the birth of aviation, Sikorsky designed and constructed the first successful large four-engine airplanes. After immigrating to America following the Russian revolution, Sikorsky's company built large flying boats for long-range airline service. Not until 1938 did Sikorsky embark on the third of his aviation careers, beginning design work on the helicopters for which he became famous.

Igor was born in the Russian (now Ukrainian) city of Kiev, one of five children. His father taught psychology at the university and established a successful private practice. Igor's mother was also well educated. In one of Igor's earliest memories, his mother described Leonardo da Vinci's (1452-1519) designs for helicopter-like flying machines. Sikorsky spent three years studying at the Imperial Russian Naval Academy, then resigned in 1906 to pursue engineering. While visiting Germany in 1908, Sikorsky read his first account of the Wright brothers' flight. Recognizing his fascination, his older sister Olga offered Igor, then just 19, enough money to purchase an engine and some building materials. But the heavy engines of the time rendered his attempts to build a helicopter hopeless. Always persistent in the face of difficulties, Sikorsky instead designed an airplane and awaited the day when technological developments would make his helicopter dreams possible.

Sikorsky's success with airplanes was remarkable. In less than two years, by 1911, one of his planes set a world speed record. The planes were still frail, though. In one case, Sikorsky crash-landed after a mosquito was caught in his fuel tank and clogged the carburetor. But aviation progressed quickly. In 1913 Sikorsky constructed the first four-engine planes in the world. During World War I these massive planes became the first heavy bombers. Though the army initially found them almost useless, by 1917 the planes were quite successful. Several times they fought off attacks by five or more German fighter planes. No longer did mere mosquitoes' endanger Sikorsky's aircraft. However, the Russian Revolution in 1917 ended Sikorsky's first career in aviation, forcing him to flee Russia for his own safety.

By March 1919 Sikorsky had arrived in New York City, ready to resume work in aviation. The end of the war led to hard times for an aircraft designer. While earning a meager living teaching math to other Russian immigrants, Sikorsky met Elizabeth Semion, and they were married in 1924. By 1923 Sikorsky was back on his wings, and 1928 marked the return of Sikorsky's success, as he became a United States citizen and sold the first of his flying boats to Pan American Airways. These designs culminated in the large " Clipper" planes that introduced long-range commercial air travel in the 1930s. However, again social turmoil over-came the technical innovations of Sikorsky's designs. By 1938 the Great Depression had dried up the market for large luxury flying boats, thus ending Sikorsky's second aviation career.

Fortunately, Sikorsky managed to keep his crack engineering team together as he entered his third aviation career, returning to his life-long dream: building a practical helicopter. By late 1939 the prototype VS-300 was flying. An infusion of military support led to the creation of the R-4, the world's first mass-produced helicopter. Though helicopters played little role in World War II, they were rapidly adapted to military, civilian, and industrial uses after the war. In 1950 Sikorsky accepted the Collier Trophy, one of aviation's highest awards, on behalf of the helicopter industry he had founded. Igor Sikorsky retired in 1957 but remained active as a spokesman for the helicopter industry. He died in 1972 in Easton, Connecticut

Text 6. Sukhoy

Sukhoy - officially OKB imeni P.O. Sukhogo also called OKB Sukhoy formerly OKB-51 Russian aerospace design bureau that is the country's second most important producer of jet fighters (after the design bureau MiG). Sukhoy is part of a giant, partiallystate-owned conglomerate of design bureaus and production plants known as AVPK Sukhoy (Aviation Military-Industrial Complex Sukhoy). Headquarters are in Moscow.

The Sukhoy design bureau has three institutional components—the actual bureau, an experimental plant, and a flight-testing station. It has production affiliates at Novosibirsk, Ulan-Ude, Komsomolsk-na-Amure, Dubna, Irkutsk, and Tbilisi, Georgia. Since its origin at the start of World War II, Sukhoy has designed about 100 different aircraft, of which about 50 types have been put into series production. Most of its fighter sales are to Russia, but it also supplies aircraft to other countries including India, China, and Vietnam. At the start of the 21st century Sukhoy began diversifying into the civilian market with the development of sports aircraft, freight vehicles, and passenger aircraft.

The history of the company is closely associated with the career of the noted Soviet aircraft designer Pavel O. Sukhoy. In the 1920s and '30s, as a senior engineer working for Andrey N. Tupolev's Moscow-based design group of the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI; see Tupolev), Sukhoy designed several bombers and fighters. In September 1939 the Soviet government appointed Sukhoy to head a new experimental design bureau (OKB) at a plant in Kharkov (now Kharkiv, Ukraine), where he designed the Su-6 ground-attack aircraft. Although he produced several excellent designs during the 1930s and '40s, a combination of bad luck, unfavourable wartime government decisions, and internal politics dogged his creations throughout this phase of his career. At the end of World War II the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin assigned him to create a new-generationjet fighter, but because of safety concerns, technical delays, and Stalin's perception that the design was too derivative of the German Me 262, Sukhoy's Su-9 and its subsequent modifications were never adopted for production. Stalin eventually closed his design bureau in November 1949, and Sukhoy's team became a subdivision of the Tupolev design bureau in Moscow.

After Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet government permitted Sukhoy to regroup his old team as an independent design bureau, first at Plant 1 in Kuybyshev (now Samara) in early 1953 and then at Plant 51 in Moscow later in the year. In 1954 his organization was renamed OKB-51, becoming the foundation of the present-day firm. In the 1950s and '60s the design bureau planned and built a series of new supersonic jet fighters, including the swept-wing Su-7 and delta-wing Su-9 (the latter a different aircraft from the Su-9 of the 1940s). These two aircraft were extensively modified over the years and used in vast numbers by the air forces of the U.S.S.R. and other Warsaw Pact countries. Like other Soviet aviation designers, Sukhoy embraced the concept of incremental development rather than large technological leaps in aircraft design. For example, he improved the Su-9 series into the Su-11 and Su-15 fighter-interceptor series for service with the Soviet air defense forces.

Shortly after Sukoy's death in 1975, his name was added in posthumous recognition to that of the design bureau, which became commonly known as OKB Sukhoy. In the 1970s and early '80s the design bureau produced the high-performance, variable-wing Su-24 multirole aircraft and the Su-25 close-support aircraft. Perhaps the best known Sukhoy design was the Su-27, a long-range, air-superiority fighter recognized for its versatility and overall capabilities. First flown in 1977 and introduced in the mid-1980s, the Su-27 set numerous world records for altitude and takeoff speed and became the forerunner of an entire family of aircraft during the next two decades.

In the 1990s Sukhoy introduced a number of new aircraft. Its Su-34 fighter-bomber began replacing the Su-24, while the redesigned Su-39 ground-attack aircraft began substituting for its older Su-25 variant. Its fifth-generation, multirole, all-weather S-37 Berkut air-superiority fighter, first flown in 1997, was equipped with state-of-the-art electronics, forward-swept wings, and thrust vector control. In competition with MiG for the international market, Sukhoy also continued to develop the lightweight Su-54 fighter. In 1997 the Russian government formed AVPK Sukhoy by combining OKB Sukhoy with its production plant and several other affiliates as part of a general restructuring. Subsequently Sukhoy endured a period of turmoil and internal strife, which included the firing of its top-level leadership.

Text 7. Tupolev

Tupolev - officially ANTK imeni A.N. Tupoleva also called ANTK Tupolev formerly OKB-156 Russian aerospace design bureau that is a major producer of civilian passenger airliners and military bombers. As a Soviet agency, it developed the U.S.S.R.'s first commercial jetliner and the world's first supersonic passenger jet. Headquarters are in Moscow.

Tupolev consists of the main design bureau and an experimental plant in Moscow, a branch in Tomilino, a flight-testing station in Zhukovsky, several design affiliates throughout Russia, and a department in Ukraine. It employs about 10, 000 people. Since its establishment it has been involved in about 80 aircraft projects, almost half of which have been put into massive series production, and it has supplied more than50 percent of all passenger aircraft operated by the countries of the former Soviet Union. In addition to civilian passenger airliners, Tupolev produces freight aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and test aircraft for research and development projects. Its success in foreign markets has been small compared with other Russian airplane builders.

The origin of the company dates to September 1922 with the formation of a commission to design and develop all-metal military aircraft. Established as part of the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI), the premiere Soviet aeronautics research institution, the commission was headed by aviation designer and TsAGI co-founder Andrey N. Tupolev. Tupolev's organization, which was set up in Moscow, included both a design team and workshop facilities to construct experimental aircraft for testing. The group's early forays into aircraft design led to the creation of a number of notable Soviet airplanes including the TB-1 (ANT-4), the world's first all-metal, twin-engine, cantilever-wing bomber and one of the largest planes built in the 1920s. Two Tupolev aircraft from the early 1930s, the giant, eight-engine ANT-20 airliner (Maksim Gorky) and the ANT-25 bomber, set world records for size and long-distance flights, respectively. In July 1936 Tupolev's design and construction effort was formally separated from the TsAGIand reorganized as Plant 156; its staff at that time numbered more than 4, 000.

In October 1937, during the height of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's great purges, the state secret police arrested and imprisoned Tupolev and a number of associates on charges of sabotage and espionage. Late thefollowing year, the secret police organized the TsKB-29 (Central Design Bureau 29) in the Bolshevo prison near Moscow to allow incarcerated aviation designers to develop military aircraft. There they ordered Tupolev to organize a design team, which, despite the lack of proper facilities for design and testing, managed to build a full-size mock up of a bomber design from timber. Eventually the team was allowed to return to the Plant 156 facilities in Moscow. Still prisoners and under constant guard, they designed and built a new twin-engine tacticalbomber, the Tu-2, which was rolled out in late 1940 and which became the standard tactical bomber in the Soviet air force in the immediate post-World War II era. In July 1941 Tupolev and a number of colleagues were released from incarceration, just in time to assist in evacuating their design bureau to Omsk in western Siberia following the German invasion of the Soviet Union. By the time the group returned to its former facilities in Moscow in late 1943, Tupolev had reestablished it as OKB-156 (Experimental Design Bureau 156).

The first major postwar task for Tupolev's bureau was to produce an exact replica of the Boeing B-29 bomber, based on a complete breakdown and detailed analysis of American planes that had been impounded during the war. The product of this effort was the Tu-4, the first truly strategic Soviet bomber. Tupolev simultaneously converted the Tu-4 for civilian use as the Tu-70, setting a precedent that he would later follow for several other military aircraft. In the 1950s, the design bureau produced the swept-wing turboprop Tu-95 in response to Stalin's request to develop an intercontinental strategic heavy bomber. Known to NATO allies by the designation “Bear, ” the Tu-95 became one of the longest-lived aircraft in the Soviet strategic arsenal. In the same period it created the first Soviet jet airliner, the twin-engine Tu-104, which first flew in 1955. The Tu-104 was derived from the bureau's highly successful Tu-16 jet bomber, first flown in 1952. From the late 1950s through the early '80s, the design bureau introduced a new generation of supersonic jet bombers, which included the twin-engine Tu-22, the twin-engine, variable-wing Tu-22M (Tu-26; NATO designation “Backfire”), and the four-engine, variable-wing Tu-160 (“Blackjack”). These were in addition to its development of several civilian airliners, such as the four-turboprop, 220-passenger Tu-114 (the world's largest passenger plane until the Boeing 747) and the160-passenger Tu-154 trijet.

During the 1960s the bureau also undertook the design and construction of a delta-wing supersonic transport, the Tu-144, a counterpart to the British and French Concorde. Tupolev assigned his son, Aleksey, as chief designer for the project. In June 1969 the Tu-144 became the first passenger jet to fly faster than the speed of sound. The aircraft's fuel consumption, however, proved to be much higher than anticipated, shortening its range, and political support for it waned after a production plane crashed at the Paris Air Show in 1973. The Tu-144 was in passenger service only briefly in 1977–78, until a second aircraft caught fire and crashed while ona test flight. In 1996 the design bureau revived the Tu-144 as part of a cooperative project with a number of U.S. aerospace companies to conduct research on a test version of a supersonic airliner.

Aleksey succeeded his father as general designer of the bureau upon the latter's death in 1972. In 1989 the organization became known by the name ANTK imeni A.N. Tupoleva (Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex named after A.N. Tupolev) as part of a restructuring to unite the core design bureau with its production affiliates. In 1992, following the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., it became a joint stock company with the Russian government holding a limited financial interest.

In the 1990s Tupolev struggled to survive in an extremely strained economy. Its few viable projects involved passenger airliners such as the Tu-204, which went into service in 1996. It also developed the Tu-324 passenger airliner, its first aircraft supported solely by financing from a commercial customer, the republic of Tatarstan. Other new products included the Tu-334, a 100-passenger airliner designed to replace its Tu-134 (introduced in the 1960s), and the Tu-330, a wide-body cargo transport for the Russian air force. It also continued to make marginal upgrades in the systems of its older bomber fleets.

Text 3. AIRCRAFT

During those years which have passed since the first aeroplane was built, aviation has enjoyed phenomenal progress. At present aviation influences many aspects of social life.

In the dynamic world of today, aviation provides a rapid transportation link between different population centres. In many places the aeroplane is the only known vehicle for the large-scale movement of passengers and freight over large distances. The airplane has made it possible to patrol the forests, to fight their fires, to assess their timber resources and to plan their harvesting. It has made an enormous contribution to the photographing and mapping of the vast territories, to exploring and prospecting for mineral wealth and to studying and assessing the water resources.

As for the helicopter, besides its use for passenger transportation, this type of aircraft has proved its value in special applications where vertical take off-landing are required. Helicopters are widely used in search and rescue operations in emergency situations or when some accident occurs.

The main components of airplanes are as follows:

1. The fuselage is the main body of the airplane and contains the pilot's compartment (cockpit) and passenger and baggage compartments. The cockpit contains the flight controls and instruments.

2. The wings are the main lifting surfaces which support the aircraft in flight. Aircraft may be divided into monoplanes and biplanes.

3. The tail unit or empennage consists of a vertical stabilizer and rudder and the horizontal stabilizer and elevators to provide the necessary stability in flight.

4. The three basic flight control surfaces are the ailerons, the elevators and the rudder.

5. The power plant is the heart of the airplane. There are many types of engines: turboprop, turbojet, turbofan, rocket engines, etc.

6. The landing gear or undercarriage is used during manoeuvering of the aircraft on the ground while taxying, taking off and landing. In flight the retractable landing gear is retracted into the wing or the fuselage structure.

AIRCRAFT INSTRUMENTS

Aircraft instruments are basically devices for obtaining information about the aircraft and its environment and for presenting that information to the pilot. Their purpose is to detect, measure, record, process and analise the variables encountered in flying an aircraft. They are mainly electrical, electronic or gyroscopic. Modern aircraft have a computer on board. They are concerned with the behavior of the engines, the speed, height and attitude of the aircraft and its whereabouts. Instruments concerned with the whereabouts of an aircraft are navigation instruments.

An aircraft usually takes the name of the designer or manufacturer. Here are some of the Russian designers: Tupolev, Ilyushin, Antonov, Yakovlev. Manufacturer's names are represented by Boeing, Douglas, Lockheed and others. The name of the designer or manufacturer is followed by a type code, known in some airlines as a class. For example: Ilyushin-96 (designer's name and type code), Boeing-747 (manufacturer's name and type code).

Exercises

I. Ответьте на вопросы:

What does aviation provide?
Where are helicopters used?
What types of aircraft do you know?
Name the main parts of the aircraft.
What does the fuselage contain?
What for are the wings required?
What are the components of the wing?
What does the tail unit provide?
What is the power plant?
What types of engines do you know?
When are the landing gears used?
What is the purpose of aircraft instruments?
What Russian and foreign designers do you know?
What name does the aircraft take?

II. Переведите слова, обращая внимание на словообразующие элементы:

transport – transportation

move – movement – movable

possible – possibility – impossible

apply - application

power – powerful

retract – retraction – retractable - unretractable

require – requirement

provide – provision

measure – measurement

contribute – contribution

III. Найдите в тексте эквивалент следующим словосочетаниям:

населенный центр, минеральные и водные ресурсы, применение авиации, перевозка пассажиров, пассажирское и грузовое отделения, приборы самолета, навигационные приборы, рули управления самолетом, пилотская кабина, конструкция фюзеляжа, аварийная ситуация, поисково-спасательные операции.

IV. Переведите на английский язык:

Огромный прогресс сделан в авиации за последнее десятилетие.
Авиация применяется во многих аспектах общественной жизни.
Авиация обеспечивает быструю перевозку пассажиров и груза из одной точки в другую.
В некоторых местах авиация является единственным средством перевозки.
Вертолет удобное средство передвижения благодаря вертикальному взлету и посадки.
Фюзеляж является основной частью самолета.
Несущими поверхностями самолета являются крылья.
Крылья и хвостовое оперение состоят из подвижных частей, таких как руль высоты, руль поворота, руль направления, стабилизатор, элерон.
Шасси используются при рулении на земле и убираются в крыло после взлета.
В кабине пилота много приборов, показывающих скорость и высоту полета, работу двигателя и другую информацию.
Современные самолеты имеют на борту компьютер.

Text 4. Helicopter (I)

Helicopter is an aircraft with one or more power-driven horizontal propellers or rotors that enable it to take off and land vertically, to move in any direction, or to remain stationary in the air. Other vertical-flight craft include autogiros, convertiplanes, and V/STOL aircraft of a number of configurations.

The idea of taking off vertically, making the transition to horizontal flight to the destination, and landing vertically has been for centuries the dream of inventors. It is the most logical form of flight, dispensing as it does with large landing fields located far from city centres and the inevitable intervening modes of travel—automobile, subway, bus—that flight in conventional aircraft usually requires. But vertical flight is also the most demanding challenge in flying, requiring more sophistication in structure, power, and control than conventional fixed-wing aircraft. These difficulties, solved over time by determined engineers and inventors, made the progress of vertical flight seem slow compared to that of conventional flight, for the first useful helicopters did not appear until the early 1940s.

Helicopters (Principles of flight and operation)

Unlike fixed-wing aircraft, the helicopter's main airfoil is the rotating blade assembly (rotor) mounted atop its fuselage on a hinged shaft (mast) connected with the vehicle's engine and flight controls. In comparison to airplanes, the tail of a helicopter is somewhat elongated and the rudder smaller; the tail is fitted with a small antitorque rotor (tail rotor). The landing gear sometimes consists of a pair of skids rather than wheel assemblies.

The fact that the helicopter obtains its lifting power by means of a rotating airfoil (the rotor) greatly complicates the factors affecting its flight, for not only does the rotor turn but it also moves up and down in a flapping motion and is affected by the horizontal or vertical movement of the helicopter itself. Unlike the usual aircraft airfoils, helicopter rotor airfoils are usually symmetrical. The chord line of a rotor, like the chord line of a wing, is an imaginary line drawn from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the airfoil.

The relative wind is the direction of the wind in relation to the airfoil. In an airplane, the flight path of the wing is fixed in relation to its forward flight; in a helicopter, the flight path of the rotor advances forward (to the helicopter's nose) and then rearward (to the helicopter's tail) in the process of its circular movement. Relative wind is always considered to be in parallel and opposite direction to the flight path. In considering helicopter flight, the relative wind can be affected by the rotation of the blades, the horizontal movement of the helicopter, the flapping of the rotor blades, and wind speed and direction. In flight, the relative wind is a combination of the rotation of the rotor blade and the movement of the helicopter.

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