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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1161.PDF
JUNE 8TH, 1944 FLIGHT ^ HJE- R E AND THERE months of 1944. Total output for the . year will be 100,000 aircraft costing about ^5,325,000,000. Mass production has brought about a big reduction in the cost per aircraft; in the case of the heavy bomber it has been halved—from , $500,000 down to $250,000 since 1942—while the cost of a fighter has been reduced from $70,000 fo $50,000 during the same period. Polish W.A.A.F.'s SIX hundred Polish women have travelled together from Africa and the Middle East to join the W.A.A.F. in Britain. At present they are under going training and will eventually be posted to Polish squadrons as cooks, telephonists, wireless operators, tele printer operators, clerks, flight mechanics V, and equipment assistants. US. Rocket Jobs FIVE types of U.S.A.A.F. fighter have been equipped to fire rockets and have been used successfully against the Japanese in the Pacific and the China- Burma-India theatres of war, Washing ton announced recently. They are the Warhawk, Thunderbolt, Lightning, Mustang and Airacobra. Fighters in Retirement A NUMBER of U.S. fighter aircraft are now being used by the American Training Command as advance trainers. Most of these are Warhawks, the others being Lightnings, Thunderbolts and Mustangs. Some of the Lightnings have had their radio removed to make room for an instructor's seat. U.S. Fighter Bomb-loads IT was officially disclosed last week that U.S. Thunderbolts and Lightnings are now carrying a 1,000 lb. bomb under each wing—double their previous load— and that a combination of low-level and dive-bombing is being successfully em- ^*. ployed. One flight dive-bombs the flak batteries, while another goes in at low- level to bomb the primary objective. Society 0/ Arts Medal THE Albert Gold Medal, highest award of the Royal Society of Arts, is being conferred this year upon Sir Henry Tizard, K.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., president of Magdalen College, Oxford, for his invalr/able services in the develop ment of aircraft. By general consent of those who know the facts, much of the credit for our out standing successes in the air is due to him. Australian Beaufighter THE first Australian - built Beaufighter was handed <jver to the R.A.A.F. last week by the Aircraft Production Department at Melbourne, 14 months after the necessary details for manu facture had been received from Britain. Like the Beaufort, the Aus tralian - built Beaufighter em bodies a number of special HOLE IN ONE : A Kellett YO-60 autogiro (300 h.p. Jacobs engine) of the U.S.A.A.F. Materials Command drops easily into a clearing among high trees. A number of these aircraft have been supplied for Service test with a transparent panel in the floor of the cockpit for direct downward vision. "mods" to suit operating conditions in the Pacific; long range, for example, is an important factor. Senator Donald Cameron, Australia's Minister for Aircraft Production, described the production of the first native built "Beau" as being the cul mination of the most intense industrial effort in Australian history. Delivery of Goods SOME idea of the prodigious amount of work done by the U.S. Air Transport Command was given recently by its Chief of Staff, Brig. Gen. R. E.'Newland. Here are some of the astronomical figures he quoted : During April its ferry pilots ilew 29,000,000 miles to deliver bombers to Europe and the Pacific. During March its transport pilots flew nearly 20,000,000 miles, carrying 6o,coo^var-important pas sengers and many thousands oi tons of vital cargo to battlefronts. During 1943 its aircrews spent more than 2,100,000 hours in the air, flying over 880,000,000 passenger-miles and 425,000,000 ton- miles. The Command was formed in May, 1941, with two officers, four other ranks, and one civilian clerk; to-day it has a military strength of 108,000 and a civilian personnel of 20,000. Missed 'lm! PUNCTUALITY is universally accepted as a virtue; and virtue, we are told, is its own reward. But according to a recent issue of La Suisse, Rommel's reward for punctuality would have been death had he arrived to time at a certain German headquarters in a French castle recently. He was due at 9.30 a.m., but was a few minutes' late. " This saved his life," said the newspaper, "for the castle was bombed and completely destroyed at 9.30 precisely." A pity!—if we may say so across the havoc of war !! More Bother at Brewsters CANCELLATION of the U.S. Navy's contract with the Brewster Aero nautical Corporation for fighter aircraft brought about a "stay-in" strike by 8,ooo of their employees. As a protest against the termination of their employ ment (the cancellation operates as fpoitt July 1st) the men and en in two of the firm's s refused to leave the premises day or night, and food was sent in to them by relatives and friends. President Roosevelt then asked Government agencies if further contracts could be placed, as a result of which it was arranged to continue the production of aircraft parts at the corporation's Long Island plant. The strike was called off as soon as the workers learnt the facts. (i- \ASCpr
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