I. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the most influential changes in a modern aircraft manufacturing?

2. What do the social issues include nowadays?

3. Why do the manufacturers from different countries ally themselves?

4. Why do most aircraft companies cease the manufacture of the smaller types of personal aircraft?

5. Why are the large planes considered to be much more reliable than the small single-engine ones?

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

• основные принципы (правила)

• огромные изменения

• международное сотрудничество (взаимосвязь)

• желание человека путешествовать

• большое увеличение цен на топливо

• чрезвычайно дорогой (по цене)

• размещение продукции

• вероятность повреждений (поломок)

• высококвалифицированные (подготовленные) пилоты

• необычайный рост (увеличение)

III. Make up your own sentences with the following phrases:

• желание человека путешествовать

• чрезвычайно дорогой

IV. Give the definitions to the following words:

• principle

• variety

• change

• personal

• damage

• allocation

• potential

V. Read the following statements and discuss them with a partner:

1. The basic principles of flight that the Wright brothers applied still pertain.

2. The most influential changes are the broad variety of applications of computer technology in all aspects of aviation.

3. For larger aircraft it is now common practice for manufacturers from different countries to ally themselves to underwrite a new design.

4. The exposure to damages from a large number of small single-engine planes is greater than the exposure of a few larger planes.

Giving your opinion you may find the following expressions helpful:

By the way as for me I’d like to know

I see I’m afraid I wonder

It seems to me that I don’t know exactly If I’m not mistaken Unit V. Planetary exploration Text 1. Planetary Exploration

In 2001 the Russian aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviacosmos, offered NASA to launch future US planetary missions onboard Russian rockets. According to the proposal, discussed by Russian and US officials in Moscow, Russia could provide its rockets to launch NASA planetary probes in exchange for a fee, which would cover the cost of integration of the US spacecraft with the Russian vehicle. Rosaviacosmos then would use NASA payments to finance Russia’s scientific contribution in the US planetary missions.

Such a scheme was considered the only realistic possibility for Russian scientists to obtain funds for participating in planetary research. Russia’s only independent planetary exploration project, which targets Mars’ moon Phobos, has been stalled due to lack of funds. Among the most likely candidates to be launched onboard Russian rockets was the Scout project, which envisioned a series of relatively small spacecraft for the exploration of Mars.

Rosaviacosmos offered to launch one or several Scout probes on the Soyuz-Fregat launcher and also to contribute Russian payload, such as a rover, to the project. Theoretically, a more powerful and expensive Proton rocket could also be used to launch NASA’s probe toward Pluto, however, the Pluto mission itself has been all but canceled.

During 2004, unmanned planetary probes achieved breathtaking results, although often not fully appreciated by the media.

On January 2, 2004, Stardust flew within 236 kilometers of Comet Wild 2 and captured thousands of particles in its aerogel collector for return on Earth in January 2006. Findings from a historic encounter between NASA’s Stardust spacecraft and a comet have revealed a much stranger world than previously believed.

Unmatched imagery and wealth of other scientific data, including convincing evidence of past salty seas, came from two NASA rovers, which successfully landed and survived harsh conditions on the surface of Mars. This information about Mars was complemented by two NASA probes and the European Mars Express orbiting the planet.

In the meantime, Cassini spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Saturn and sent a European lander toward its mysterious moon Titan.

However, Russian planetary program remain essentially stalled with a lonely Phobos-Grunt project, still awaiting $25 million in federal funding and the launch date in 2009.