Symposium on EEC Membership

Ireland became a member of the European Economic Community on January 1 1973. The decision to join an enlarged EEC had many motives, political and economic. Among the most important was the belief that membership would contribute positively to the further development of the Irish economy both in terms of the stimulus it would give to investment and growth and, more directly, because of the flow of funds that we could expect to obtain from Europe. The purpose of the present paper is to assess how far financial assistance to Ireland from the Community has contributed to development of the economy. The analysis is intended to answer a number of questions: (I) how has Community financial assistance to Ireland grown since 1973? (ii) how has Ireland\u27s share of the Community budget and of other finances developed as compared with our Community partners? (iii) what has been the relationship between EEC financing and: (a) development of the size and structure of the national budget (with particular emphasis on the capital budget); (b) investment growth

PRORA USV - TECH sharp hot structures: Advanced ceramic materials and related technology for slender-shaped hot structures

In the framework of the Italian National Space Research Program (PRO.RA), supported by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research (M.I.U.R), a dedicated technology project, managed by the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (C.I.R.A. S.c.p.A.) and aimed to assess the use of ultra high temperature ceramics in the manufacturing of future RLV hot structures, is now running. A multi-material structure, which couple diborides (addressed as the sole materials that can be conveniently employed at temperatures above 2200K) to a C/SiC frame, is under investigation with the aim to demonstrate an innovative concept of nose cap. The current state of the research work is presented and the to-date results are described. Experimental data related to plasma sprayed coatings and self-standing components as well as to hot isostatically pressed samples are reported and discussed