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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0403.PDF
MARCH 3RD, 1949 FLIGHT 263 Scribes and Pharisees The Bating 850. the Air Force. The facts were that, in the summer of 1947, the Air Force had but one modern type of pressurized transport for com- fortable flying at high altitude, the DC-6, all examples of which—including the Presidential DC-6 Independence—were grounded in November, 1947, after a couple of serious fires had occurred in flight. At that time, the President also complained that there was something in the back of the DC-6 that he did not like. (British observers reported a similar '' tail waggle'' at the time the DC-6 was first introduced into Europe by K.L.M.) In order to provide an alternative executive aircraft for the President while the DC-6 was undergoing extensive structural changes, Symington said that Mr. Truman had ap- proved the outfitting of a Lockheed Constella- tion. This was a conversion of one of ten cargo-type Constellations ordered by the Air Force from Lockheed in January, 1948. Al- though the Air Force thought it might be criticized for the additional cost, it turned out that the conversion cost was, in fact, very low. (Mr. Symington did not enlarge on his idea of "low cost," although it would be interesting to know the overall cost of pro- viding both a chicken and a turkey for the Presidential dinner-pail!) Some months ago, when Symington again broached the subject to President Truman, the latter told him that be was now fully . : satisfied with.the modified DC-6 Independence ":~ ' (after C.A.A. reapproval), but would like to have the Con- stellation as an alternative. Recently, this Presidential Connie was delivered to the Air Force and placed among the special mission aircraft of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS). Possibly this may have started off the newshounds of the Press on a false scent. A little more spice was added to an already piquant story by Lockheed workers who prepared a fictitious '' change order," after the voters# had extended Mr. Truman's tenancy of the White House for another four years. This change order included such items as: (1) Remove moustache cup (Truman is clean-shaven, whereas Dewey has quite a noticeable "brush"); (2) Install piano; and (3) Attach sheet-music with favourite Truman songs (the President is an enthusiastic piano-player who likes to strum and sing with his political henchmen). The result of all this give-and-take—which is the rough and tumble of American politics—is that everybody seems to have come up smiling except the Republicans who fumbled the ball on the goal line. Mr. Truman is back in the White House on his own fighting merits, with two good executive aircraft to boot—or, rather, in his Christmas stocking; while both the rival aircraft firms can now boast a Presidential feather in their cap. On top of which, Mr. Truman, after making a flight in the " Dewdrop," described it to the Scribes (and Pharisees) of the Press as a very nice plane to ride in—adding, however, that he liked his own DC-6 better. With this amende honorable in the cause of Independence, the next move seems to be up to Lockheed. < BIG-BOMBER BOMBSHELL PASSING from the piquant to the political, the Air Forcestarted the New Year—and startled the Industry—by cancelling more than $300 million in orders for jet fighters and light and medium bombers. Some $290 million of this credit balance will be expended for a new batch ot 39 Convair RB-36 long-range reconnaissance-bombers, and for improving existing B-36AS by the substitution of the higher-powered 3,500 h.p. Wasp Major R-43C0-41 type engines already installed in the B-36B model. Some of the B-36AS will also be adapted as tankers for aerial refuelling. To date 23 of the "A" and about 30 of the "B" models have been completed out of the original order for 96. Two 18-plane groups are already in operational status at the Fort Worth, Texas, base of the 8th Air Force, the global striking arm of the Strategic Air Com- mand, while further groups are slated for Arctic training. Some of these procurement cut-backs have already been re- ported in Flight, but to clear the record to date they will be recapitulated. They began in a big way with cancellation of orders for 88 Curtiss-Wright F-87 Blackhawk all-weather jet lighters. This saving of $80 million was undoubtedly justified, It is announced that there are 132 on order, each to cost about two million dollars. as the F-87 looked like a shockingly bad guess by Wright Fieldright from the start. Cancellation of 100 Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighters saved a further 830-odd million. TheThunderjet has also been having some operational troubles, but this aircraft has all the classic airmarks of a first-rate jetfighter and 409 F-84CS are currently on order. North American was the next to feel the sharp edge of the new Democratic budgetary axe, with cancellation of 51 from the original production order of 190 B-45 short-range jet bombers. This was followed a few days later by the axing of a new contract for 118 F-93 jet fighters, although the flight and static-test prototypes already engineered will be completed for test purposes. The F-93, formerly designated the F-86C. is an improved and faster version of the record-breaking F-86, which indicates a top speed around the 700 m.p.h. mark. North American still has a current production order for 554 F-86 As, so although they dropped some $190 million of pro- mised business, one need not shed more than a passing tear. Moreover, they still have a comfortable backlog of over $300 million on the military order-book and they are one of the livest engineering and production teams in the U.S. aircraft industry, so we are pretty certain they themselves are not wasting any time doing a figurative weep at the Washington wailing wall. For a good many years they seem to have made almost an exclusive corner of the military-trainer market and they recently swept the board again over the rest of the industry with their winning T-28 design for the U.S.A.F. Current T-28 contracts amount to 266 aircraft. On top of all these choice plums from the Air Force, they have just picked another crop from the U.S. Navy for 28 AJ-I composite- powered jet-cum-piston carrier-borne bombers. (The XAJ-i prototype was totally destroyed recently.) Talking of choice pickings, the current year looks like a bumper one for Boeing, for this firm has picked up the stagger- ing total of $532 million in new orders—much of which, no doubt, will be sub-contracted. This immense sum (to the tax- payer, at any rate) procures 132 B-50D bombers (§264 million), 43 B-54 bombers ($189 million), 10 B-47 bombers ($40 million), and 23 C-97A military freighters ($39 million). The significant technical interest in this announcement is the really big money being shovelled into long-range bomber development, long the favoured weapon of American global air power. The B-54 's the compound-engined version formerly known as the B-50C and it is particularly interesting to note that the price runs to about $4.4 million per aircraft, as against a figure of $2 million for the B-50D with orthodox Wasp Majors. As a marginal note on this expensive fire-insurance policy we might add that while we have not yet figured out just what the premium amounts to in terms of personal income-tax, we do have a sneaking feeling that the Kremlin Gremlins are not trem'lin just the way our American friends would like to
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