Argentina welocmes its new aircraft company, IMPA (Compania Industria Metalurgica & Plastica S.A.).
Originally formed to take over the firm of Lieneu & Cia, former agents for the Fisk Tyre & Rubber Company and Argentine distributors for Chrysler automoblies. It manufactures aluminium, lead and plastic articles and undertakes the production of ammuniton for the Argentine Armed Forces.
With investment from the Atlantean aircraft company Accrisius IMPA has started an aircraft division to build aircraft under licence.
A joint programme between FMA and Spartan has led to the design of three new types, a fighter, a bomber and a flying boat. A commercial design has also been created. IMPA will handle all the contracts for licence building these types in Argentina. Details are lacking but two data sheets have been released.
************
Special Report by Antonio Allegro Special Correspondent for Noticias Argentinas
Visit to Maquichao Research Station
Following the recent visit by the esteemed ‘Heavenly Pursuits’ reporter A. Fabio the news agency received a telephone call from a high official to cover the story of the visit by an Atlantean scientific mission led by Mr Minia, a distinguished scientist currently working on heat propulsion in Atlantis.
We drove the twenty-five miles from Maquichao and stopped at a checkpoint, here we met up with Senor Fabio, our guide and an Atlantean interpreter, another representative of FMA and our armed guard. We then drove up the hill to the main complex previously closed to all press. To the right was the massive 2500 acre factory site, not so much a factory as a huge chemical plant with miles of pipes and pumps and massive towers of steel and huge aluminium tanks reflecting the crisp morning sunlight. Our guide informed us the site was owned by the National Chemical Corporation (NCCA) and had its own controlled entrance. To our left is the temporary concrete factory churning out pre-fabricated panels, so great is the demand that almost all the concrete is made on site.
We drove up to the second checkpoint and here we dismounted from the car and walked to the headquarters building. To protect against blast all the administration buildings are on this side of the hill shielded from the test pads by the bulk of the hill. The Design & Technical building has massive windows that face over the valley while the Operations Building is a depressing concrete building looking more like a fortress than an office block. Once out of the car you notice the immense noise, the drilling and hammering and above us are cranes effortlessly lifting tons of concrete above our heads. Everywhere there are workmen, not just milling around but hard at work digging and building and welding and doing a thousand and one tasks. We are to meet Mr Minia at the Test Centre atop the hill; ahead of us is a long climb. As we go higher we can see more of the site and the immensity of the whole complex becomes apparent. Our guide has not stopped talking since we entered the site but as we reach the top and he too sees the massive factory site below he too stops to take it all in, for once he is speechless. The white hot heat of technology has come to the foothills of the Andes.
The Test Centre is a huge bunker dug into the top of the hill above the test stands and beside the giant reservoir that sits atop the hill. We enter and are ushered into a small windowless room. A gentle hum of the air pumps is pervading the whole structure, that and the smell of fresh paint. The walls are cream, the lower half in a dark shade of brown. In the centre of the room stooping over a table is the man himself, Minia. I have time to interview him through the interpreter while the FMA technician watches over us to make sure he says nothing too sensitive. He is a modest man with glasses low on his nose, he is greying on the sides and looks a little thin and the thin atmosphere and the cold do not help either. He has dressed smartly but he looks so obviously a professor, someone who is at home with rows of dials and fiddling with little models while lost in a sea of algebra.
“Well we have come here to check over these facilities, we wanted to build similar site ourselves but our FMA liaison manager one day said to my office we have this new place nearly finished if you come and visit we could arrange some co-operation together. So I’m here. Not to officially work on rockets for the Argentines but to get research data for our own projects.” He refused to comment on the rumours that Atlantis has paid 10 million Pesos towards this mammoth project, with a disarming smile he also dismisses speculation of joint programmes, “well we will have to see what the political and technological climate brings us, certainly this site will have everything we need.”
We continue our tour, we go over the hill and down towards the first large test pad. Here the hill has been levelled and controlled by man. The rear of the factory site now meets the assembly area. This is still a mass of scaffold poles and sheets of metal. This area leads directly to the massive flat deck of the pad. Connected to it is the A-frame concrete gantry, leading to it is a massive underground pipe. Our guide explains the whole water system of the site. “Because of the expected heat during prolonged firing trials we have to minimise structural damage to the stand. The water flows down from the top lake behind us by natural gravity and quenches the rocket exhaust; about 90,000 litres a minute can be discharged. It then flows down the large channels Senor Fabio inspected to the bottom lake to be pumped back up the hill. 90,000 litres a minute! Yet this man so matter-of-factly describes it as if he were filling up his bath! He continues, “We have enough water here for an hour of full testing in the top reservoir alone, we will eventually install a turbine in these pipes to generate our own electricity too, so you see we are really a self-contained unit.” Each of the three pads has its own pad and channels, all are linked by a fresh black asphalt road which turns in a great arc along the hill, all the pads facing out over the valley. The guide points east where the road aimlessly leads, that is where more stands will be built, this time without the water protection.
On the far side of the lower lake we can see another mass of buildings and construction equipment our guide only confirms that the lower site in the valley and up the far northerly hill will be the main aeronautical research area with wind tunnels, two 12-18 G centrifuges, pressurization chambers, temperature booths and other classified buildings. Like the design and administration areas this is still closed to us. On our way back to the car it becomes apparent the lengths gone to minimise the risks of fire and explosions. The factory site is marked by huge earthen banks and ponds for fire-fighting, blast pens protect the most important buildings and thick concrete bunkers house the delicate instruments and men.
As we leave it is hard not to be impressed, impressed by the brains behind the plant, impressed by the imagination needed to build this place, the determination to build such an ambitious scheme and draw into it the hopes of a generation. Most of the population is oblivious of this place yet someday the work began here may send men to the moon and the stars.
WesWorld »
The SIM »
News and Stories »
Quoted
Originally posted by HoOmAn
Monday, May 27th 2024, 9:27am
Go to the top of the page
