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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0452.PDF
232 FLIC HI 'MARCH 7TH, 1940 LET US BE HONEST however, be a slight delay before further tests since theaircraft was unfortunately written off." In fact, of course, even the near-perfect prototype isa very rare bird indeed—as rare as the '' dazzling, stupen- dous and colossal'' new aircraft which so often prematurelyappears after a few months of development work. Only about half a dozen wartime aircraft, British or American,eventually became really good, and fewer than that must have been obviously good from the very start. It is difficult,then, to see why the proportion among civil aircraft should be any higher. Designers are still groping along in thehalf-light, and just now the problems are admitted to be greater in possibilities of error than they have ever been. The chances of complete initial success are, perhaps,about fifty-fifty. That is why it is probably still better for civil aircraft orders to be spread quite evenly aroundthe industry, and why it is, so far, better to have a number of medium-sized aircraft in course of development than tostake everything on one or two stupendous affairs. De- velopment, in any case, takes a very considerable time,and some firms will always be luckier than others. Of all the beautiful new transports which arepromised on the other side of the Atlantic, I wonder how many will be good straight off, and how many, even, willbe capable of being made very good? And I wonder how long it will be before any of them are in service? Thedesign work on the Constellation started in 1939 and the aircraft is only just going into service. Admittedly, a warintervened and the design was well in advance of its con temporaries—but six years is a long time. All kinds of dazzling prospects are reported from theother side. There is the big Constitution ; the Consolidated- Vultee 37 (with, one is told, six 5,000 h.p. engines); thenew Strato-cruiser (135,000 lb. all-up weight) ; and the Rainbow (with a promised 400 m.p.h.). Aircraft likethese, with new power units and new control systems, or ,-' even, like the DC-8 (or Mixmaster), with an entirely dif- 'ferent and unconventional layout, cannot be developed quickly. Let us worry, by all means, and work very hard indeedto ensure that our future transports are as good as, or better than, anything else. But let us not be reduced un-necessarily to tears by mere hopeful conjecture. The pro- duction of the new and better series of civil aircraft isgoing to be a very tough job indeed—and on both sides of the Atlantic. Departure of ILS. Army 8th Air Force Last Lend/Lease Airfield Handed Back to R.A.F. ON February 26th, at Honington airfield in Suffolk,the U.S. Army 8th Air Force handed back to theRoyal Air Force the last of the 112 airfields which they had occupied for operations in Europe. BrigadierGeneral E. C. Keil, the last commander of the Eighth in England, handed over to Air Marshal Sir James Robb,A.O.C.in-C. Fighter Command. As the American flag was hauled down an R.A.F. bandplayed the Star Spangled Banner, and contingents of the two nations' air forces stood to attention. Before he left General Keil said: "The Eighth will begone from England, but I can assure you that England will never be gone from the minds of those who servedwith the Force. Hospitality extended by a people at a time when they were fighting for existence can never beforgotten. I have yet to hear of a single American opera- tional mission which suffered for lack of co-operation. Thissame team work will, I am sure, exist between OUT two great nations in the solution of problems for a peacefulworld." Brigadier General Keil was the commander of the EighthFighter Command, the last unit of the Eighth Air Force to leave the United Kingdom. In their early efforts the Americans were experimentingwith daylight bombing—"an untried theory of air war- fare," as one of them put it. The first American raid wasmade on Rouen on August 17th, 1942, and there were only 12 Fortresses available to take part in it. In the earlyraids too many bombs fell outside the target area, and that meant damage to France. Technical modificationswere made in the machines as experience was accumu- lated. After a while the authorities decided that an arma-ment of 13 machine-guns, mainly of 0.5m calibre, was not enough protection. Escort fighters were needed, and intime the long-range Mustang and Thunderbolt were evolved. R.A.F. Bomber Command was a night-bombing force ;the Eighth Air Force indulged only in day-bombing. The two fitted in together. It was not only that the combina-tion made possible all-round-the-clock attacks on Ger- many ; there was more in it than that. For a long timein the middle of the war Bomber Command went hi for area bombing. The object was to counter the Germanplan of distributing work on components in numerous small factories, bicycle shops and the like, throughout a city. In such cases there was usually one key factory or assemblyshop some little distance outside the city. Night bombing could not make sure of dealing with that building. Butthe Americans, working by daylight and using their remarkably accurate bomb sight, were able to follow upthe raid of Bomber Command and obliterate this key build- ing. At the end, however, when the Americans were atfull strength, the roles of the two were largely reversed, and Bomber Command (thanks to its Pathfinder technique)achieved a high degree of accuracy in hitting-special small targets. Common Effort It was not only in operations that the R.A.F. and theU.S. Army Air Forces worked together. The R.A.F. from the start laid itself out to ease the problems of the Ameii-cans who were building up a huge Air Force with Britain as an advanced base, and the breadth of the Atlantic lyingbetween it and the home factories. A chronicler of the. American effort has written that from the start the atti-tude of the R.A.F. to their Allies was " Tell us what you want; if we have it it is yours." And, says the writer,they might have added, " Whether or not we need it our- selves." On the other hand, the R.A.F. always found theAmericans ready to give any help they could. A strong bond of brotherhood of the ah* was built up between thetwo sets of airmen, many (but by no means the majority) of whom had common ancestors. W The Americans came early in 1942. Last year their 'strength was 7,177 bombers and 6,203 fighters. The bombers flew 754,818 sorties and dropped 1,461,864 tonsof bombs. There were 41,186 casualties in the Eighth Air Force, and 6,319 aircraft were lost. And now the Americans have gone. Their going mean.*that the tragedies of war are over—and that nobody can regret. We know too that they are only too anxious to gelhome to " God's own country," and we must be glad tha* these gallant men are getting their heart's desire. I"some ways, too, it will be convenient for Britons to have their own country again, and to start reconverting theAmerican airfields into farms. So it would be hypocrisy to say that we are altogether sorry to see them depart,though many good friendships are being severed. But we must emphatically say that we are infinitely glad thaithey came. *•
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